The in vitro cytotoxic potential of locally produced dental porcelain was evaluated in this study. The cellular response of human osteoblast and fibroblast cell lines were assessed using MTT assay by incubating with the fluid extract of dental porcelain powder and dental porcelain discs (direct test). Aging process was carried out by submerging the discs into 3% bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution. Tests on extracts showed that dental porcelain was significantly different from the control at a concentration of 250 mg/ml. Direct test showed that dental porcelain after aging was not significantly different from the control with a mean (SD) of 89.2 (13.4)%, whereas, it was significantly different from the control before conditioning of BSA with a mean (SD) of 88.5 (12.1)%. However, the dental porcelain caused mild suppression of succinate dehydrogenase activity (<25%), which is considered to be accepted clinically and hence can be ranked as being non-cytotoxic.

Perivitelline fluid (PVF) of the horseshoe crab embryo has been reported to possess an important role during embryogenesis by promoting cell proliferation. This study aims to evaluate the effect of PVF on the expression of cell cycle regulatory genes from human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) between different cell passages viz. 4, 5, 6. The cells were treated with a single dose of PVF (26.89 mg/ml) PVF. Gene expression was quantified for CDKNA2A, PTEN, MDM2 and TP53 genes using reverse transcriptase PCR. CDKN2A and MDM2 expression for treated and untreated DPSCs, expressed a similar pattern of expression. The higher expression of CDKN2A showed that the treatment increased cell proliferation and prevented cell senescence. DPSCs with PVF treatment showed increased expression of MDM2 at passage 4 and drastically declined expression at passage 5 and slightly increased at passage 6. TP53 expression of DPSCs treated group showed a higher expression compared to untreated group. On the other hand, the expression of PTEN in DPSCs treated group started to increase from passage 5 to 6. However, on the whole, the PTEN expression was higher than the untreated group in all the passages studied here. The results showed that PVF could enhance cell cycle regulatory gene expression in DPSCs as indicated by the higher expression of all the genes considered in this study at different cell passages in the treated group compared to the untreated group. Mann Whitney test was utilized to determine the significance of cell cycle regulatory genes expression between treated and untreated group. Significant difference in expression of genes between the treated and untreated groups were found at all passages except for CDKN2A gene whereby, its expression was not significantly different at passage 5 though it did express slightly higher in PVF treated DPSCs.

Some of the beneficial biocompatible properties of hydroxyapatite [Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2]; the major component and an essential ingredient of normal bone and teeth, are that it is rapidly integrated into the human body and will bond to bone forming indistinguishable unions. But, before new materials are approved for medical use, mutagenesis systems to exclude cytotoxic, mutagenic or carcinogenic properties are applied worldwide. This study aimed to detect any chromosomal aberrations induced by the synthetic hydroxyapatite granules [Manufactured by Universiti Sains Malaysia, (USM) Penang, Malaysia] in the bone marrow cells of mice. The mitotic indices of the groups treated with synthetic hydroxyapatite granules did not show any significant difference as compared to the negative control group treated with distilled water. Also the groups of mice treated with synthetic hydroxyapatite granules and distilled water did not induce significant change in chromosome aberrations as compared to the positive control group treated with Mitomycin C. The mitotic indices and chromosomal analyses indicate that under the present test conditions, synthetic hydroxyapatite granules (manufactured by USM) are non cytotoxic and do not induce chromosome aberrations in the bone marrow cells of mice.
Chromosome Aberrations ; Durapatite

Discovery of drugs from medicinal plants continues to provide major leads against various pharmacological targets, particularly in cancer diseases. Hence, there are increasing demands to discover more therapeutic agents from various species of medicinal plants. Chemical compounds in plants are important for human beings due to their therapeutic properties. Goniothalamus umbrosus, Typhonium flagelliforme, Myrmecodia pendens, Strobilanthes crispus and Clinacanthus nutans, are among the herbal species, which are consumed by cancer patients in order to combat against the growth of cancer cells. The present review aims to highlight on the anti-cancer properties of the listed Malaysian herbs.
Plants, Medicinal ; Neoplasms