Increasing the repeating units of ethylene glycol-based dimethacrylates directed toward reduced oxidative stress and co-stimulatory factors expression in human monocytic cells.

Abstract

The ethylene glycol-based dimethacrylates are commonly used in biomaterials and dental restorative materials as a cross-linking agent. In this study, toxic effect of triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) and poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylates (PEG-DMAs) with various ethylene glycol repeating units was investigated in terms of cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, and the expression of co-stimulatory factors in human leukemia cell line (THP-1 cells) to verify the effect of ethylene glycol repeating units. Note that the 1-octanol/water partition coefficient of PEG-based dimethacrylates decreased with increasing the ethylene glycol repeating units, indicating that the hydrophilicity of PEG-DMAs increased with ethylene glycol repeating units. The toxic effect of PEG-DMAs such as cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, and the expression of CD86 in treated THP-1 cells are reduced with increasing the ethylene glycol repeating units in PEG-DMAs. However, the expression of CD54 in treated THP-1 cells was not influenced with the ethylene glycol repeating units and the maximal expression level of CD54 was observed at the concentration range of 2-4 mM for all samples. Accordingly, hydrophilic character of PEG-DMAs with long ethylene glycol chains definitely alleviates the some toxic aspect of PEG-based DMAs. This finding would provide important insight into the design of new biomaterials and dental materials with superior biocompatibility.