Use of soymilk as a storage medium for avulsed teeth.

OBJECTIVE: Tooth avulsion is one of the most severe forms of dental trauma. In these cases, immediate reimplantation is ideal; however, it almost never happens. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the viability of cells stored in soymilk and compare with other several storage media. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The media tested were: long-shelf-life coconut water, long-shelf-life whole milk, long-shelf-life soymilk, Gatorade, egg white, and Hank's Balanced Salt Solution. Cells cultured in DMEM and distilled water served as positive and negative controls, respectively. Plates containing confluent 3T3 fibroblast were soaked in the various media for 2, 12 and 24 h. After incubation at 37°C, viability of the cells was determined using the MTS assay. Data were analyzed by using one-way ANOVA and complemented by Tukey test with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that DMEM, whole milk, HBSS and soymilk were the most effective media for maintaining cell viability at all tested times (p < 0.05), followed by coconut water, egg white and Gatorade. The least amount of viable cells was observed in the distilled water group. CONCLUSIONS: The present study shows that the efficacy of soymilk in maintaining the viability of 3T3 fibroblasts is similar to that of HBSS and milk. Therefore, it can be concluded that soymilk could be a suitable alternative storage medium for avulsed teeth.

A multiparametric assay to compare the cytotoxicity of soy milk with different storage media.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of soy milk compared with several other storage media [coconut water, Hank's Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) and whole milk], assessed through a multiparametric analysis employing 3T3 cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Plates containing confluent 3T3 fibroblasts were exposed to the various media for 24 h, at 37°C with 5% CO2, and cell viability was evaluated by a multiparametric assay assessing sequentially, on the same cells, mitochondrial activity (XTT), membrane integrity (neutral red test) and total cell density (crystal violet dye exclusion test). Results from each test were compared by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that whole milk, HBSS and soy milk were the most effective media in maintaining cell viability at all tested times (P < 0.05). The least amount of viable cells was observed when using coconut water. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the efficacy of soy milk in maintaining the viability of 3T3 fibroblasts is similar to that of HBSS and milk, as shown by three different cell viability tests.