Titanium-hydroxyapatite composites sintered at low temperature for tissue engineering: in vitro cell support and biocompatibility

ROMINA COMÍN; MARIANA P. CID; LUCIANO GRINSCHPUN; CARLOS OLDANI; NANCY A SALVATIERRA

Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional Materials

WICHTIG PUBLISHING

Lugar: aceptado para publicación 21 de diciembre 2016; Año: 2017

Background: In clinical orthopedics, a critical problem is the bone tissue loss produced by a disease or injury. Theuse of composites from titanium and hydroxyapatite for biomedical applications has increased due to the resultingadvantageous combination of hydroxyapatite bioactivity and favorable mechanical properties of titanium.Powder metallurgy is a simple and lower-cost method that uses powder from titanium and hydroxyapatite toobtain composites having hydroxyapatite phases in a metallic matrix. However, this method has certain limitationsarising from thermal decomposition of hydroxyapatite in the titanium-hydroxyapatite system above 800°C.We obtained a composite from titanium and bovine hydroxyapatite powders sintered at 800°C and evaluated itsbioactivity and cytocompatibility according to the ISO 10993 standard.Methods: Surface analysis and bioactivity of the composite was evaluated by X-ray diffraction and SEM. MTTassay was carried out to assess cytotoxicity on Vero and NIH3T3 cells. Cell morphology and cell adhesion on thecomposite surface were analyzed using fluorescence and SEM.Results: We obtained a porous composite with hydroxyapatite particles well integrated in titanium matrix whichpresented excellent bioactivity. Our data did not reveal any toxicity of titanium-hydroxyapatite composite on Veroor NIH3T3 cells. Moreover, extracts from composite did not affect cell morphology or density. Finally, NIH3T3 cellswere capable of adhering to and proliferating on the composite surface.Conclusions: The composite obtained displayed promising biomedical applications through the simple methodof powder metallurgy. Additionally, these findings provide an in vitro proof for adequate biocompatibility oftitanium-hydroxyapatite composite sintered at 800°C.