Introduction: Innovative fluoride-doped calcium phosphates attract great interest as potential remineralising materials for dental applications, which may be able to react with body fluid and be converted into fluorapatite (FA) and/or fluor-hydroxyapatite (FHA). Hence, this in vitro study aimed to assess the cytotoxicity, self-renewal, and migratory properties of these experimental materials.

Methods: Five specimens containing 0, 5, 10 and 20% fluoride on hDPSCs were tested at different dilutions (undiluted, from 1:5 to 1:100), and the eluates were prepared according to ISO 10993-12. Viability assays were conducted using the MTT test. Furthermore, we analysed self-renewal by observing colony formation and migration activity with scratch tests.

Results: Our results demonstrated that the powders with greatest toxicity on hDPSCs are those without fluoride and with 20% fluoride when diluted 1:1. Exclusively using the 1:50 dilution, which is non-cytotoxic, we observed that the powder containing 20% fluoride caused a significant decrease in clonogenic capacity. Furthermore, the results obtained from the scratch test did not highlight significant differences in terms of the migratory capacity of the cells when treated with different percentages of fluoride, leaving us to hypothesise that the different percentages of fluorine do not act at the level of the cytoskeleton.

Conclusions: The results obtained confirm that the experimental fluoride-doped calcium phosphates are cytotoxic for hDPSCs regardless of the percentages of fluorine tested, but the effects of their dilutions indicate that controlled doses could be able to promote cell proliferation. Therefore, the data obtained represent a starting point for future studies that will focus on the most appropriate concentrations of fluoride to be used in order to obtain non-cytotoxic and osteoinductive effects so that these experimental materials can be used clinically for beneficial and preventive purposes.