Bacterial attachment on sub-nanometrically smooth titanium substrata.

Despite the volume of work that has been conducted on the topic, the role of surface topography in mediating bacterial cell adhesion is not well understood. The primary reason for this lack of understanding is the relatively limited extent of topographical characterisation employed in many studies. In the present study, the topographies of three sub-nanometrically smooth titanium (Ti) surfaces were comprehensively characterised, using nine individual parameters that together describe the height, shape and distribution of their surface features. This topographical analysis was then correlated with the adhesion behaviour of the pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in an effort to understand the role played by each aspect of surface architecture in influencing bacterial attachment. While P. aeruginosa was largely unable to adhere to any of the three sub-nanometrically smooth Ti surfaces, the extent of S. aureus cell attachment was found to be greater on surfaces with higher average, RMS and maximum roughness and higher surface areas. The cells also attached in greater numbers to surfaces that had shorter autocorrelation lengths and skewness values that approached zero, indicating a preference for less ordered surfaces with peak heights and valley depths evenly distributed around the mean plane. Across the sub-nanometrically smooth range of surfaces tested, it was shown that S. aureus more easily attached to surfaces with larger features that were evenly distributed between peaks and valleys, with higher levels of randomness. This study demonstrated that the traditionally employed amplitudinal roughness parameters are not the only determinants of bacterial adhesion, and that spatial parameters can also be used to predict the extent of attachment.

Random spectrum fatigue performance of severely plastically deformed titanium for implant dentistry applications.

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) has long been known to confer superior mechanical properties for many metals and alloys. In the general field of biomedical devices, and dental implants in particular, the superior strength of SPD-processed commercially pure (CP) titanium, that may surpass that of the stronger Ti6Al4V alloy, has been associated with a superior fatigue resistance. Such a property would make those materials both biocompatible and strong alternatives to the currently used titanium alloy. However, the fatigue characterization reported so far in the literature relies on a very small sample size, thereby precluding any meaningful statistical analysis. This paper reports and compares systematic fatigue testing of various grades as-received and SPD processed Grade 4 CP-Ti using the recently developed random spectrum loading approach, in both air and 0.9% saline solution. The results of this study do not support the claim that the SPD process, albeit causing noticeable strengthening, confers any advantage to Grade 4 CP-Ti in terms of fatigue response.

Combined effect of grain refinement and surface modification of pure titanium on the attachment of mesenchymal stem cells and osteoblast-like SaOS-2 cells.

Surface modification is an important step in production of medical implants. Surface roughening creates additional surface area to enhance the bonding between the implant and the bone. Recent research provided a means to alter the microstructure of titanium by severe plastic deformation (SPD) in order to increase its strength, and thereby reduce the size of the implants (specifically, their diameter). The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of bulk microstructure of commercially pure titanium with coarse-grained (CG) and ultrafine-grained (UFG) bulk structure on the surface state of these materials after surface modification by sand blasting and acid etching (SLA). It was shown that SLA-modified surface characteristics, in particular, roughness, chemistry, and wettability, were affected by prior SPD processing. Additionally, biocompatibility of UFG titanium was examined using osteosarcoma cell line SaOS-2 and primary human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell (adMSC) cultures. Enhanced cell viability as well as increased matrix mineralization during osteogenic differentiation of MSCs on the surface of ultrafine-grained titanium was shown.

Effect of bulk microstructure of commercially pure titanium on surface characteristics and fatigue properties after surface modification by sand blasting and acid-etching.

Surface modification techniques are widely used to enhance the biological response to the implant materials. These techniques generally create a roughened surface, effectively increasing the surface area thus promoting cell adhesion. However, a negative side effect is a higher susceptibility of a roughened surface to failure due to the presence of multiple stress concentrators. The purpose of the study reported here was to examine the effects of surface modification by sand blasting and acid-etching (SLA) on the microstructure and fatigue performance of coarse-grained and ultrafine-grained (UFG) commercially pure titanium. Finer grain sizes, produced by equal channel angular pressing, resulted in lower values of surface roughness in SLA-processed material. This effect was associated with greater resistance of the UFG structure to plastic deformation. The fatigue properties of UFG Ti were found to be superior to those of coarse-grained Ti and conventional Ti-6Al-4V, both before and after SLA-treatment.

Accelerated growth of preosteoblastic cells on ultrafine grained titanium.

This work is part of a general effort to demonstrate the effect of the bulk microstructure of titanium as a model bone implant material on viability of osteoblasts (bone-forming cells). The objective of this work was to study the proliferation of preosteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells extracted from mice embryos on commercial purity titanium substrates. Two distinct states of titanium were considered: as-received material with an average grain size of 4.5 microm and that processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), with an average grain size of 200 nm. We report the first results of an in vitro study into the effect of this extreme grain refinement on viability and proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells. By means of MTT assays it was demonstrated that ECAP processing of titanium enhances MC3T3-E1 culture proliferation in a spectacular way. This finding suggests that bone implants made from ECAP processed titanium may promote bone tissue growth.