Apatite-forming ability of silicate ion dissolved from silica gels.

It is known that the prerequisite for glasses and glass-ceramics to bond to living bone is the formation of biologically active bonelike apatite on their surfaces, and a certain type of hydrated silica developed on their surfaces plays an important role in nucleating the apatite. In the present study, the apatite-forming ability of silicate ion dissolved from different silica materials into a simulated body fluid was examined as follows. Polyether sulfone substrates pretreated with O2 plasma were placed in parallel to plates of three kinds of silica gels prepared in different media and silica glass, with a distance of 0.5 mm between them in a simulated body fluid with ion concentrations nearly equal to those of human blood plasma for 4 days, and then soaked in a solution with ion concentrations 1.5 times those of the simulated body fluid for 6 days. After the first soaking, silicon combined with oxygen was detected on the surfaces of the substrates faced to all the silica gels, whereas it was not detected on that faced to the silica glass. After the second soaking, the former formed a bonelike apatite layer on their surfaces, but the latter did not. These results indicate that silicate ion which is dissolved from the silica gels and adsorbed on the substrates has an apatite-forming ability, irrespective of the microstructure of the original silica gels.