Effects of dental materials on insulin release from isolated islets of Langerhans

Objectives: To investigate the possibility of using a whole organ model for evaluating the biological effects of dental restoration materials in vitro. Methods: The effect on insulin release of isolated Langerhans islets of a series of dental materials was examined. The islets were incubated for 1 h with extracts obtained from various dental materials and insulin was assayed radioimmunologically with crystalline mouse insulin. The results were analysed statistically using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffeʹs test at a significance level of p<0.05. Results: One dental ceramic, Vita VMK 95, significantly (p<0.01) decreased the insulin release, whereas another dental ceramic, Empress (p<0.01), a partly re-cast high-noble gold alloy (p<0.001), a modified high-noble gold alloy (p<0,05), and unalloyed copper (p<0.001) significantly increased the release of insulin. Significance: The results demonstrate a new instance of examining the biological effects of dental restoration materials. The method provides information about the effect of different materials on organ level in vitro that can complement other in vitro tests.