The efficacy of Salvadora persica extracts in preserving the viability of human foreskin fibroblasts

• Main Authors: Hanan Abdul Ghafour Balto, Hassan Suliman Halawany, Vimal Jacob, Nimmi Biju Abraham
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2015-07-01
• Series: Saudi Dental Journal
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1013905215000152

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Salvadora persica hexane and ethanol extracts in preserving the viability of human foreskin fibroblasts. Materials and methods: Normal human foreskin cells were cultivated in Dulbecco modified Minimum Essential Medium (D-MEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and 2 mM of l-glutamine. Cell pellets were suspended in the following test solutions: (1) Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS); (2) homogenized milk; (3) hexane extract of S. persica; or (4) ethanol extract of S. persica. D-MEM with no serum was used as a positive control. For each condition, cell count was adjusted to 8 × 105 cells/ml, and the cells were incubated in the solutions for either 30, 60, or 120 min. Subsequently, the nonviable cells were separated from the viable cells using the trypan blue dye stain. The ratio of viable to nonviable cells was recorded using a cell counter. Statistical analysis of the data was accomplished by one-way analysis of variance using SPSS Version 16. The level of significance was 5% (p < .05). Results: We did not detect a significant difference when comparing the percentage of viable cells in test solutions at the three incubation periods (30 min, p = 0.478; 60 min, p = 0.606; 120 min, p = 0.091). Homogenized milk preserved the viability of foreskin fibroblasts better than all other tested solutions. Incubation of cells in S. persica hexane and ethanol extracts resulted in a similar percentage of viable cells to incubation of cells in HBSS for each incubation period. Conclusions: S. persica hexane and ethanol extracts should be considered an alternative storage medium to HBSS. Keywords: Avulsion, Cell viability, Fibroblasts, Human foreskin fibroblasts, Storage medium