The effect of photoinitiators on intracellular AKT signaling pathway in tissue engineering application

Free-radical photopolymerization initiated by photoinitiators is an important method to make tissue engineering scaffolds. To advance understanding of photoinitiator cytocompatibility, we examined three photoinitiators including 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenyl-acetophenone (DMPA), Irgacure 2959 (I-2959), and eosin Y photoinitiating system (EY) in terms of their effects on the viability of HN4 cells and expression levels of intracellular AKT and its phosphorylated form p-AKT. Our results show that the photoinitiators and their UV-exposed counterparts affect intracellular AKT signaling, which can be used in conjunction with cell viability for cytocompatibility assessment of photoinitiators.