Abstract
Tissue response in rat subcutaneous tissue to gallium alloy and amalgams was histopathologically examined to observe the biocompatibility.Immediately after trituration of gallium alloy and amalgams, they were put into the stainless steel mold of inner size of 1×1×5mm shape.The specimens were aged for 20 hours at room temperature after trituration, and polished metallugically to a mirror surface.At 24 hours after trituration, the specimens were implanted into a dorsal site of rat subcutaneous tissue using a hypodermic needle.Rats were killed at 3, 7, 30 days, and the tissue was fixed with 10% neutral formalin and the specimens were carefully removed from the implant site after the tissue was fixed.The tissue was dehydrated and embedded in paraffin, sectioned longitudinally to the specimen, and stained with hematoxyline and eosin.The gallium alloy was disintegrated into pieces in the tissue, and the tissue around the gallium alloy consisted of granular tissue containing small fragments of gallium alloy with moderate inflammatory cell infiltration.There were no differences in the degree of inflammation with or without zinc containing high copper amalgam.Tissue was formed around the amalgam showing capsular formation with moderate or virtually no inflammatory cell infiltration.The properties of the gallium alloy should be improved to obtain as good a tissue response as with the amalgams.
