An Oral-mucosa-on-a-chip sensitively evaluates cell responses to dental monomers.

Knowledge of human gingival cell responses to dental monomers is critical for the development of new dental materials. Testing standards have been developed to provide guidelines to evaluate biological functionality of dental materials and devices. However, one shortcoming of the traditional testing platforms is that they do not recapitulate the multi-layered configuration of gingiva, and thus cannot evaluate the layer-specific cellular responses.

Oral mucosa-on-a-chip to assess layer-specific responses to bacteria and dental materials.

The human oral mucosa hosts a diverse microbiome and is exposed to potentially toxic biomaterials from dental restoratives. Mucosal health is partly determined by cell and tissue responses to challenges such as dental materials and pathogenic bacteria. An model to rapidly determine potential layer-specific responses would lead to a better understanding of mucosal homeostasis and pathology.