Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of calcium hydroxide and glass ionomer cement fillings on the levels of $LTB_4$ and $LTC_4$ in experimentally inflamed rat dental pulp. The dental pulp in the mandibular incisor of wistar rat was irritated by cutting a 5mm deep hole in the dentin with a twist drill bur of 0.5mm diameter, without cooling. The cavities were filled with calcium hydroxide(light-cured) and glass ionomer cement(light cured). The untreated pulp served as control tissue specimen. After cavity preparations, the rat with or without various treatment were sacrificed in various time by decapitation. The dental pulp tissue were carefully removed and the concentrations of $LTB_4$ and $LTC_4$ were determined by radioimmunoassay. And pulps were examined histologically to observe inflammatory feature. The result were obtained as follows : 1. The inflammatory features of pulps were observed microscopically in all experimental groups. And degree of inflammation was decreased with time. 2. The concentrations of $LTB_4$ and $LTC_4$ for all experimental groups were significantly higher than those for control group 6 hours after cavity preparation(p<0.05). 3. The group filled with calcium hydroxide was the lowest, and the group filled with glass ionomer cement, the group of irritation in that order showed increased concentrations of $LTB_4$ and $LTC_4$ 6 hours after cavity preparation. In the concentrations of $LTB_4$, significant differences among 3 groups were noted(p<0.05). 4. The group filled with calcium hydroxide was the lowest, and the group filled with glass ionomer cement, the group of irritation in that order showed increased concentrations of $LTB_4$ and $LTC_4$ 24 hours after cavity preparation. And there were statistically significant difference in concentrations of $LTB_4$ between the group of irritation and the group filled with calcium hydroxide(p<0.05). 5. The group filled with calcium hydroxide was the lowest, and the group filled with glass ionomer cement, the group of irritation in that order showed increased concentrations of $LTB_4$ and $LTC_4$ 48 hours after cavity preparation. But no statistically difference was found (p>0.05). 6. The concentrations of $LTB_4$ and $LTC_4$ in all experimental groups were highest level at 6 hour after experiment and decreased as time progresses(correlation coefficient>0.8).