CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Introduction: In clinical orthopedic, a critical problem is the bone tissue loss produced by a disease or injury. The use of composites from titanium and hydroxyapatite for biomedical applications has increased due to the resulting advantageous combination of hydroxyapatite bioactivity and the favorable titanium mechanical properties. Powder metallurgy is a simple and lower cost method that uses powder from titanium and hydroxyapatite to obtain composites having hydroxyapatite phases in a metallic matrix.However, this method has certain limitations arising from thermal decomposition of hydroxyapatite in the titanium-hydroxyapatite system above 800ºC.In this work, we obtained a composite from titanium and bovine hydroxyapatite powders sintered at 800°C and evaluated its bioactivity and citocompatibility according to ISO 10993 standard.Methods: Surface analysis and bioactivity of the composite was evaluated by SEMmicroscopy. MTT assay was carried out to assess cytotoxicity on Vero and NIH3T3cells. Cell morphology and cell adhesion on the composite surface were analyzedusing fluorescence and SEM microscopy.Results: A porous composite with hydroxyapatite particles well integrated in the Ti matrix was obtained which presented an excellent bioactivity. Our data did not reveal any toxicity of titanium-hydroxyapatite composite in Vero or NIH3T3 cells. Moreover, composite extracts did not affect cell morphology or density. Finally, NIH3T3 cells were capable to adhere and proliferate on the composite surface.Conclusion: We obtained a composite with promising biomedical application through a simple method as powder metallurgy. Our results supplied in vitro proof of an adequate biocompatibility of titanium-hydroxyapatite composite when it sintered at 800ºC.