Gingival response to silk, cotton, and nylon suture materials

Silk, cotton, and nylon suture materials were implanted in the tunica propria of the gingiva in seven adult rhesus monkeys. The histologic study of twenty-four biopsy specimens indicated that there was neither an increase in the vascular permeability nor a leukocytic margination and migration into the tissues adjacent to the suture materials. However, there was a variable histiocytic reaction, with multinucleated cell formation. This reaction was quite intense with cotton, less intense with silk, and practically absent with nylon. The greater cellular response to cotton was probably due to its more active capacity for modifying the internal biologic medium of the gingiva.