Objectives: This study investigated the antibacterial properties and micro-hardness of polyacrylic acid (PAA)-coated copper iodide (CuI) nanoparticles incorporated into glass ionomer-based materials, and the effect of PAA-CuI on collagen degradation.
Materials and methods: PAA-CuI nanoparticles were incorporated into glass ionomer (GI), Ionofil Molar AC, and resin-modified glass ionomer (RMGI), Vitrebond, at 0.263 wt%. The antibacterial properties against Streptococcus mutans (n = 6/group) and surface micro-hardness (n = 5/group) were evaluated. Twenty dentin beams were completely demineralized in 10 wt% phosphoric acid and equally divided in two groups (n = 10/group) for incubation in simulated body fluid (SBF) or SBF containing 1 mg/ml PAA-CuI. The amount of dry mass loss and hydroxyproline (HYP) released were quantified. Kruskal-Wallis, Student's t test, two-way ANOVA, and Mann-Whitney were used to analyze the antibacterial, micro-hardness, dry mass, and HYP release data, respectively (p < 0.05).
Results: Addition of PAA-CuI nanoparticles into the glass ionomer matrix yielded significant reduction (99.999 %) in the concentration of bacteria relative to the control groups. While micro-hardness values of PAA-CuI-doped GI were no different from its control, PAA-CuI-doped RMGI demonstrated significantly higher values than its control. A significant decrease in dry mass weight was shown only for the control beams (10.53 %, p = 0.04). Significantly less HYP was released from beams incubated in PAA-CuI relative to the control beams (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: PAA-CuI nanoparticles are an effective additive to glass ionomer-based materials as they greatly enhance their antibacterial properties and reduce collagen degradation without an adverse effect on their mechanical properties.
Clinical relevance: The use of copper-doped glass ionomer-based materials under composite restorations may contribute to an increased longevity of adhesive restorations, because of their enhanced antibacterial properties and reduced collagen degradation.
Keywords: Antibacterial; Collagen degradation; Glass ionomer; Matrix metalloproteinases; Micro-hardness.