the effect of propolis as a biological storage media on periodontal ligament cell survival in an avulsed tooth: an in vitro study

objective: both the length of extra-alveolar time and type of storage media are significant factors that can affect the long-term prognosis of replanted teeth. this study aims to compare propolis 50%, propolis 10%, hank’s balanced salt solution (hbss), milk and egg white on periodontal ligament (pdl) cell survival for different time points. materials and methods: in this in vitro experimental study, we divided 60 extracted teeth without any periodontal diseases into five experimental and two control groups that consisted each experimental group with 10 and each control group with 5 teeth. the storage times were one and three hours for each media. the controls corresponded to 0-minute (positive) and 12-hour (negative) dry time. rinsing in the experimental media, the teeth were treated with dispase and collagenase for one hour. cell viability was determined by using trypan blue exclusion. statistical analysis of the data was accomplished by using two-way analysis of variance (anova) complemented by the tukey’s hsd post-hoc. results: within one hour, there was no significant difference between the two propolis groups, however these two groups had significantly more viable pdl cells compared to the other experimental media (p<0.05). the results of the three-hour group showed that propolis 10% was significantly better than egg white, whereas both propolis 10% and 50% were significantly better than milk (p<0.05). conclusion: based on pdl cell viability, propolis could be recommended as a suitable biological storage media for avulsed teeth.