Department of Biochemical Sciences of the University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
J Biomed Mater Res A. 2010 Mar 15;92(4):1623-34. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.32507.
The present work is aimed to evaluate the effects of a surface modification process on the biocompatibility of three vanadium-free titanium alloys with biomedical applications interest. Chemical composition of alloys investigated, in weight %, were Ti-7Nb-6Al, Ti-13Nb-13Zr, and Ti-15Zr-4Nb. An easy and economic method intended to improve the biocompatibiblity of these materials consists in a simple thermal treatment at high temperature, 750 degrees C, in air for different times. The significance of modification of the surface properties to the biological response was studied putting in contact both untreated and thermally treated alloys with human cells in culture, Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) and Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC). The TNF-alpha release data indicate that thermal treatment improves the biological response of the alloys. The notable enhancement of the surface roughness upon oxidation could be related with the observed reduction of the TNF-alpha levels for treated alloys. A different behavior of the two cell lines may be observed, when adhesion molecules (ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 in HUVEC, ICAM-1, and LFA-1 in PBMC) were determined, PBMC being more sensitive than HUVEC to the contact with the samples. The data also distinguish surface composition and corrosion resistance as significant parameters for the biological response.
本工作旨在评估表面改性工艺对三种具有生物医学应用兴趣的无钒钛合金生物相容性的影响。研究的合金化学成分（按重量计）为 Ti-7Nb-6Al、Ti-13Nb-13Zr 和 Ti-15Zr-4Nb。一种旨在提高这些材料生物相容性的简单且经济的方法是在空气中于 750°C 进行简单的高温热处理，时间不同。通过将未经处理和经过热处理的合金与培养中的人细胞（人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVEC）和人外周血单核细胞（PBMC））接触，研究了表面性能改性对生物反应的重要性。TNF-α 释放数据表明，热处理可改善合金的生物学反应。氧化后表面粗糙度的显著提高可能与观察到的处理合金中 TNF-α 水平降低有关。当测定粘附分子（HUVEC 中的 ICAM-1 和 VCAM-1，PBMC 中的 ICAM-1 和 LFA-1）时，两种细胞系的行为可能不同，与样品接触时，PBMC 比 HUVEC 更敏感。数据还将表面成分和耐腐蚀性区分作为生物反应的重要参数。
