| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Biocompatibility of Hydroxylated Metabolites of BISGMA and BFDGE
1 Schools of Pharmacy and Dentistry, University of Missouri, 2411 Holmes Street, Kansas City, MO 64108-2792; and Correspondence: * corresponding author, kostoryze{at}umkc.edu
Unpolymerized dental monomers can leach out into the oral biophase and are bioavailable for metabolism. We hypothesize that metabolites would be less toxic than parent monomers. We first identified the formation of metabolites from bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (BFDGE) and Bisphenol A glycidyl methacrylate (BISGMA) after their exposure to liver S9 fractions. Then, the metabolites and parent compounds were subjected to in vitro cytotoxicity, mutagenicity, and estrogenicity studies. Bisphenol A bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl) ether and bisphenol F bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl) ether were the hydroxylated metabolites of BISGMA and BFDGE, respectively. Cytotoxicity against L929 cells showed that the metabolites were significantly (p < 0.05) less cytotoxic than the parent monomers. Only BFDGE was mutagenic in the Ames assay with strain TA100 of Salmonella typhimurium. Parent and metabolite compounds did not stimulate estrogen-dependent MCF-7 cell proliferation above solvent controls. These results indicated that the hydroxylated metabolites were non-mutagenic, non-estrogenic, and less cytotoxic than their parent monomers.
Key Words: BISGMA bisphenol F diglycidyl ether hydroxylated metabolites cytotoxicity mutagenicity biocompatibility
Current dental resin/composite systems are polymers of methacrylates such as bisphenol A glycidyl methacrylate (BISGMA). However, BISGMA polymerization is never complete, and unpolymerized monomers are known to remain in the polymer after the curing process. Residual unpolymerized monomers are known to leach out (Gerzina and Hume, 1996) into the oral biophase and are bioavailable for metabolism by esterases (Yourtee et al., 2001) and other enzymes. BISGMA is known to undergo hydrolysis of its ester group to form the tetrahydroxylated metabolite bisphenol A bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl) ether (BADPE-4OH). This metabolite was reported to be a degradation product from the hydrolysis of BISGMA-cured polymer resin model in the presence of cholesterol esterase (Santerre et al., 2001). In this reaction, BADPE-4OH is formed by the loss of two molecules of methacrylic acid from BISGMA. BADPE-4OH was also identified as a metabolite from bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE). In this case, however, BADPE-4OH was formed by the ring opening of the epoxy groups in BADGE (Climie et al., 1981), and was identified as an activity of epoxide hydrolase (Bentley et al., 1989). The toxicity of BADPE-4OH is unclear. Previously, it was reported that BADPE-4OH produced micronuclei formation in cultured human lymphocytes (Suarez et al., 2000). However, residual BADGE in the hydrolyzed fractions may have biased the net response exhibited by BADPE-4OH, as BADGE produced micronuclei formation. Therefore, evaluating the toxicity of the hydroxylated metabolite will clarify our understanding of the in vivo fate of BISGMA and BADGE. Recently, BADGE and its congener, bisphenol F diglyicidyl ether (BFDGE), have been proposed for development of oxirane-based dental composites (Eick et al., 2002). Structurally, these oxirane compounds are similar. The difference is that the bisphenol core of BFDGE has two hydrogen atoms in the quaternary carbon instead of the two methyl groups in BADGE. We theorized that the metabolism of BFDGE may produce its tetrahydroxylated metabolite. Studies for identifying the formation of hydroxylated metabolites of BFDGE and BISGMA as well as evaluating their toxicity are needed for a full understanding of the adverse effects of each monomer and its resins. Thus, the objectives of this study were two-fold: (a) identify the formation of the tetrahydroxylated metabolites of BFDGE and BISGMA after exposure of each monomer to liver S9 fractions in vitro, and (b) evaluate the biocompatibility of the hydroxylated metabolites in relation to their parent compounds. Biocompatibility evaluations were carried out by in vitro cytotoxicity and mutagenicity measurements in the MTT assay and the Ames assay, respectively. Concerns for estrogenicity were also addressed because BISGMA and BFDGE as well as their potential metabolites are bisphenol A and F derivatives. Bisphenol A and F are known endocrine disruptor chemicals (Welshons et al., 1999). In general, metabolism is a mechanism for rendering xenobiotics into harmless substances (Parkinson, 1996). Therefore, our hypothesis was that the metabolite compounds would be less toxic than the parent compounds.
Test Chemicals BISGMA was obtained from 3M-ESPE (Dental Products Division, St. Paul, MN, USA). BFDGE, BADPE-4OH, and BFDPE-4OH were obtained from Fluka Chemical Company (Milwaukee, WI, USA) and were of 97% purity. BISGMA and BFDGE were purified to 94 and 92%, respectively, as described previously (Smith et al., 2001).
Identification of Metabolites
Biological Assays We used the Ames Salmonella assay to evaluate the mutagenicity of the test compounds with and without rat liver S9 (Maron and Ames, 1983). Five doses of test compound were prepared in DMSO, and aliquots of 100 µL of each chemical dose and 100 µL of an overnight growth of bacterial strain TA100 (2 x 109 cells/mL) were added to a tube containing 2 mL of molten (45°C) soft agar enriched with 0.05 mM histidine and 0.05 mM biotin. This was rapidly mixed and then poured onto the surfaces of minimal glucose agar plates (100-mm-diameter) in triplicate. For assessment of the effects of metabolism, each top agar tube had an extra 500 µL S9-mix, which was added last. The S9-mix consisted of 4% S9 (Aroclor 1254-induced rat liver S9 fraction, ICN Biomedicals Inc., Aurora, OH, USA) with added co-factors NADP and glucose-6-phosphate. Plates were incubated at 37°C for 48 hrs, and revertant colonies were then counted (automated colony-counter, BioTran, Edison, NJ, USA). The positive controls were sodium azide (without S9) and 2-aminofluorene (with S9). DMSO controls were included in the assay. Positive mutagenicity was based on mutation ratio (MR), the quotient of the average total revertants per test compound divided by the average spontaneous revertants or solvent control. If the mutation ratio was equal to or greater than 2 in the dose-response curve, the compound was considered mutagenic. For estrogenic activity, estrogen-dependent proliferation of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells was used as described (Grady et al., 1991). For routine maintenance, cells were grown in Minimal Essential Medium (MEM, Gibco, Rockville, MD, USA) with phenol red 10 mg/L, containing non-essential amino acids, 10 mM Hepes, insulin 6 ng/mL (Sigma), penicillin (100 units/mL), streptomycin (100 µg/mL), and 5% charcoal-stripped calf serum (Gibco) in an atmosphere of 5%CO2/95% air under saturating humidity at 37°C. For assay of estrogenic activity, MCF-7 cells were plated at 2000 cells per well (96-well plate) in estrogen-free medium (phenol-red-free maintenance medium), and after attachment for 3 days, the cells were treated with the test compounds for 4 days at the indicated concentrations in the estrogen-free medium containing 0.1% solvent ethanol with daily medium changes, 200 µL per well, by means of a Tomtec Quadra 96 robotics unit (Tomtec, Hamden, CT, USA). After the cells were washed once with 200 µL Hanks Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) at the end of the exposure time, cell proliferation was measured as total DNA by means of the diphenylamine (DPA) assay adapted to 96-well format for robotics (Natarajan et al., 1994). Briefly, a 60-µL aliquot of a 1:5 mixture of acetaldehyde (0.16%) and 20 perchloric acid was added along with 100 µL of diphenylamine reagent (4% DPA in glacial acetic acid), and plates were incubated for 24 hrs at 37°C. Absorbance at 595 nm minus the absorbance at 700 nm was measured in a Bio-Tek PowerWave plate reader and compared with a standard curve prepared with calf thymus DNA (type 1, sodium salt, Sigma-Aldrich), 0.1 to 5.0 µg DNA per well in a parallel plate.
Metabolites By 10 min, greater than 90% of the initial BISGMA and BFDGE concentrations had disappeared. Their tetrahydroxy metabolites correspondingly appeared in the hepatic S9 fractions and were identified against commercially available compounds with identical chromatographic retention times and LC/MS ion fragmentation patterns as the suspected metabolites from in vitro incubations. The metabolites themselves, when incubated as the primary substrate, showed minimal metabolism in our in vitro model, suggesting that these compounds did not form bisphenol A or bisphenol F. Although methacrylic acid was not quantitated, it was also a metabolite of hydrolysis. Positive controls were metabolized as expected, indicating the integrity of the hepatic incubation system.
The LC/MS conditions represent selected ion monitoring (SIM) of the ammoniated adduct of BISGMA (M+17+H+ = 530) and the ammoniated adduct of the tetrahydroxy metabolite (M+17+H+ = 394). Also, BFDGE (M+17+H+ = 330) and the metabolite (M+17+H = 366) were identified via metabolism with liver S9 fractions (Fig. 1
Cellular Toxicity The monomers and metabolites exhibited decreases in percent cell survival as their doses increased. From these dose-response curves (Fig. 2
Mutagenic Activity The number of spontaneous revertants of strain TA100 was in the normal range of 110 to 147 revertant colonies per plate (Ames et al., 1983). Both metabolites in the dose range of 0.025 to 15 µmoles per plate produced mutation ratios in the range of 0.8 to 1.35, similar to those of the solvent control 5% DMSO, which produced mutation ratios in the range of 0.8 to 1.28. Metabolite doses above 15 µmoles per plate (100 µL of 150 mM solutions) presented solubility problems, and the metabolites were not tested above these doses. The parent monomer BFDGE was mutagenic with and without metabolism, exhibiting mutation ratios up to 8.5 (Fig. 3
Estrogenic Activity The estrogen-dependent proliferation response of MCF-7 cells was validated with estradiol (E2) in the absence and presence of the estrogen antagonist raloxifene (keoxifene). The natural estrogen estradiol stimulated MCF-7 cell growth, producing 1.082 ± 0.026 and 1.672 ± 0.065 µg DNA per well at doses of 0.01 nM and 0.1 nM, respectively, compared with hormone-free control growth of approximately 0.55 µg DNA per well (see below). The estrogen antagonist abolished the activity of 0.1 nM E2, causing DNA levels to drop to 0.597 ± 0.041 µg DNA per well. The DNA level for cells without a test compound added (negative control) was 0.546 ± 0.011 µg per well. The solvent 0.1% ethanol produced DNA levels of 0.551 ± 0.007 µg per well. The proliferation response of the cells was further validated with bisphenol A (BPA). BPA produced a dose-response in the dose range of 56 to 3630 nM, to a full efficacy of just over 100% maximal stimulation compared with E2 (Fig. 4
BISGMA and BFDGE were metabolized rapidly in S9 fractions. In vitro incubation of BISGMA or BFDGE with S9 fractions demonstrated that the predominant metabolite was the respective hydroxylated metabolite. BISGMA was metabolized to the hydroxylated metabolite and methacrylic acid, while BFDGE was metabolized to the hydroxylated metabolite (Fig. 1 From cytotoxicity results, the metabolites were less cytotoxic than the respective parent monomers. The reduced cytotoxicity of the metabolite of BISGMA supports the reduced cytotoxicity of BISGMA observed in the presence of S9 mix (Hikage et al., 1999). S9 fractions contain phase I and phase II metabolic systems that render xenobiotics generally harmless (Parkinson, 1996). From our results, the cellular toxicity of BISGMA or BFDGE may be reduced when swallowed because of its potential detoxification by the liver. However, in situ effects on cells in the oral environment may derive mainly from the parent monomer. In this study, where fibroblast cells were used, the cytotoxicities of BISGMA and BFDGE were less than observed earlier (Hanks et al., 1991; Kostoryz et al., 1999, 2001). This may be because we used purified monomers. Contrary to the non-mutagenicity of BISGMA (Schweikl et al., 1998) and its hydroxylated metabolite, the oxirane BFDGE was mutagenic with and without liver S9. However, the decreased mutagenicity of BFDGE in the presence of the S9 fraction indicates that the parent monomer was metabolized to some extent to the non-mutagenic metabolite. Non-mutagenicity may be due to the absence of epoxy groups in the hydroxylated metabolite. This indicates that epoxide hydrolase activity may be the primary route for detoxification of BFDGE. In vivo studies are needed to confirm this observation. Estrogenicity, the potential of a chemical to stimulate an estrogenic response through estrogen receptors, appears not to be of concern for BISGMA, BFDGE, or their metabolites. In summary, our results supported our hypothesis that the tetrahydroxylated metabolites of BISGMA and BFDGE were less toxic than their respective parent monomers. Bisphenol F diglycidyl ether must be avoided in biomaterials development because of its genotoxic potential.
This study was supported in part by the NIH/National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Grants DE09696 (DMY) and MO-VMF00018 (WW). Received for publication June 18, 2002. Revision received January 24, 2003. Accepted for publication February 3, 2003.
Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 82, No. 5,
367-371 (2003)
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||




