Osteostatin- an effective substitute pulp capping material in hard tissue formation; Study

The study is published in the Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics Journal.

In recent in vitro study, it was reported that osteostatin (OST) has an odontogenic effect and synergistic effect with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) in human dental pulp cells.

Hence, Ji-Hye Yoon and colleagues from the Department of Conservative Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Dental Science Research Institute, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea carried out the present study with the sole aim toto evaluate whether OST has a synergistic effect with MTA on hard tissue formation in vivo.

The authors used a total of thirty-two maxillary molars of Spraque-Dawley rats . An occlusal cavity was prepared and the exposed pulps were randomly divided into 3 groups: group 1 (control; ProRoot MTA), group 2 (OST 100 μM + ProRoot MTA), group 3 (OST 10 mM + ProRoot MTA).

Exposed pulps were capped with each material and cavities were restored with resin modified glass ionomer. The animals were sacrificed after 4 weeks. All harvested teeth were scanned with micro-computed tomography (CT).

The samples were prepared and hard tissue formation was evaluated histologically. For immunohistochemical analysis, the specimens were sectioned and incubated with primary antibodies against dentin sialoprotein (DSP).

The results showed that -

a. In the micro-CT analysis, it is revealed that OST with ProRoot MTA groups showed more mineralized bridge than the control (p < 0.05).

b. In the H&E staining, it is showed that more quantity of the mineralized dentin bridge was formed in the OST with ProRoot MTA group compared to the control (p < 0.05).

c. In all groups, DSP was expressed in newly formed reparative dentin area.

Therefore, the authors concluded that "OST can be a supplementary pulp capping material when used with MTA to make synergistic effect in hard tissue formation."