title: [Studies on the effects of dental amalgam upon the fertilization and early development of sea urchin eggs (Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus) (author's transl)].
abstract: Silver-tin amalgam that has been used as a filling material in routine dental clinic contains a large amount of mercury and the cytotoxity of metal mercury may hazard to patients. There have been a number of papers reporting that the dental amalgam has not any toxic action to living cells in animal experiments in vivo. However, the mechanism of cytotoxic action and effects of these metals for tissues and cells were not reported so far. In the present experiments, the analysis of the cytotoxic action of silver-tin alloys and their amalgam in vitro cytological experiments with fertilized eggs and developing embryos of sea urchin, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus, were examined. When the silver-tin alloy powder was incubated in normal sea water medium there are non or weak cytotoxic reaction upon fertilized eggs and early embryos of sea urchin. Metal mercury in the medium effects remarkable cytotoxic action upon the development of early embryos; the cleavage and early development were delayed and all of the embryos show deformity. Immediately after the alloy powder was triturated with mercury, it shows strong cytotoxic action as the metal mercury was incubated, however, the cytotoxic action decreased and almost disappeared in 5 hours after trituration. The mechanism of cytotoxic action and the adequacy of clinical application of the amalgam were discussed.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003723:Dental Amalgam / Q000633:toxicity*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth; D012617:Sea Urchins; D015053:Zygote / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003723:Dental Amalgam