Dental Implants Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Dental Implants, including details on dentistry, surgery, tooth implants.

Novel silicon-doped hydroxyapatite (Si-HA) for biomedical coatings: An in vitro study using acellular simulated body fluid.

Thian ES, Huang J, Best SM, Barber ZH, Bonfield W

Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, United Kingdom.

Magnetron co-sputtering was used to produce silicon-doped hydroxyapatite (Si-HA) as coatings intended for potential applications such as orthopedic and dental implants. It was found that the crystallinity of the as-sputtered coatings increased after annealing, resulting in a nanocrystalline apatite structure. Subsequently, the bioactivity of the coatings was evaluated in an acellular simulated body fluid (SBF). Physicochemical evaluation demonstrated that a carbonate-containing apatite layer, which is essential for bonding at the bone/implant interface, was formed on the coating surfaces after immersion in SBF between 4 and 7 days. The annealed coatings exhibited enhanced bioactivity and chemical stability under physiological conditions, as compared with the as-sputtered coatings. It is proposed that the rate at which the carbonate-containing apatite layer forms is dependent on the scale factor of the structure. A nanocrystalline structure can provide a higher number of nucleation sites for the formation of apatite crystallites, leading to a more rapid precipitation of carbonate-containing apatite layer. This work shows that Si-HA coatings offer considerable potential for applications in hard tissue replacement, owing to their ability to form a carbonate-containing apatite layer rapidly. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2006.

Published 9 January 2006 in J Biomed Mater Res B Appl Biomater, 76(2): 326-33.
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