The importance of the culture medium on human dental pulp cell attachment

Radiochromium-labelled pulpal cells were cultured with nine commercially available media and conditioned minimal essential (MEM) medium. Radiochromium release from the 10 cell cultures was recorded after 4 h of incubation. Cells cultured with MEM and conditioned MEM were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after 2, 4, 8 and 24 h of incubation to study possible differences in attachment. Radiochromium release from cells cultured with most of the media was very high, indicating damage to the external cell membrane. When cells were cultured with conditioned medium, the radiochromium release was within acceptable limits. SEM showed faster attachment when cells were cultured with conditioned MEM. The data indicate that pulpal cells should be cultured with conditioned medium for better results in short-term cytotoxicity experiments with the radiochromium release method.