TOXICITY ASSAY USING ARTEMIA SALINA FOR DENTAL MATERIALS: A MINI-REVIEW

Introduction: Biological mortality tests with Artemia salina have been used for decades in Ecology, free of ethical restrictions and with high reproducibility, which encourages their use for preclinical validation of dental materials in order to minimize the risk of toxicity. Objective: The aim of this review was to evaluate the potential of the Artemia salina model for in vivo toxicity analysis of dental materials. Methods: A bibliographic search was carried out in the electronic database PubMed/Medline, with the keywords Artemia AND dentistry, Artemia AND biocompatibility and Artemia AND bone. Original articles between 1999 and 2022 were included, and publications outside of orofacial use or systematic reviews were excluded. Of the total of 63 publications, only 14 were within the criteria. Results: Experiments generally use plating of ten artemia nauplii, exposed for 24h to microconcentrations of the products in triplicate, using potassium dichromate (C+) and saline solution (C-) as controls, considering as toxic a lethal concentration to 50% of the animals. The most frequent test materials were polymers, composites and bioceramics, in the form of osteoconductive particles or matrices, mucoadhesive gels, dentin adhesives, endodontic cements, bone adhesives, dental restorations or toothbrushing sticks. Easy handling and fast execution are attractive to the technique, but the lack of morphofunctional similarity or long-term interaction of microcrustaceans limit its isolated application for biocompatibility analysis. Conclusion: This review shows the versatility of biological tests with Artemia salina, representing an alternative in vivo methodology for acute toxicity screening of new dental materials.