Sustained release vancomycin-coated titanium alloy using a novel electrostatic dry powder coating technique may be a potential strategy to reduce implant-related infection.

In order to tackle the implant-related infection, a novel way was developed in this study to coat vancomycin particles mixed with controlled release coating materials onto the surface of titanium alloy by using an electrostatic dry powder coating technique. To characterize this sustained release antibacterial coating, surface morphology, in vitro and in vivo drug release were sequentially evaluated. In vitro cytotoxicity was tested by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and cytological changes were observed by inverted microscope. The antibacterial properties against MRSA, including a bacterial growth inhibition assay and a colony-counting test by spread plate method were performed. Results indicated that the vancomycin-coated sample was biocompatible for Human osteoblast cell line MG-63 and displayed effective antibacterial ability against MRSA. The coating film was revealed uniform by scanning electron microscopy. Both the in vitro and in vivo drug release kinetics showed an initially high release rate, followed by an extended period of sustained drug release over 7 days. These results suggest that with good biocompatibility and antibacterial ability, the sustained release antibacterial coating of titanium alloy using our novel electrostatic dry powder coating process may provide a promising candidate for the treatment of orthopedic implant-related infection.