Experimental approach towards the water contact angle value on the biomaterial alloy Ti6Al4V

In the biomedical field, water contact angle is a useful gauge to follow how a biomaterial surface would interact with the surrounding water-like physiological environment. Ti6Al4V alloy is widely used in orthopedic applications. Nevertheless, the values of its water contact angle reported in the literature show a large dispersion, from 40° up 80°. However, in addition to the expected dependence of the surface wettability on preliminary treatments, the values of the water contact angle on the pristine Ti6Al4V alloy suffers from an important variability and lack of reproducibility.The present research pays attention to this difficulty and proposes a simple experimental procedure to ensure adequate contact angle reproducibility. Controlled passivation growth in mild underwater conditions of freshly polished disks, followed by ultrasonic washing, avoiding the rubbing of the surface, gives average water contact angles of 80° with very low standard deviations also among samples from the same batch

Dendronized Anionic Gold Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization and Antiviral Activity

Anionic carbosilane dendrons decorated with sulfonate functions and with a thiol moiety at the focal point have been used to synthesize water soluble gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by direct reaction of dendrons, gold precursor and reducing agent in water and also by place-exchange reaction. These nanoparticles have been characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV, elemental analysis, and Z potential. Also, the interacting ability of the anionic sulfonate functions was investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) using copper(II) as a probe. It was found that the different structures and conformations of the AuNPs modulate the availability of sulfonate and thiol groups to be complexed by copper(II). Toxicity assays of AuNPs showed that those produced by direct reaction were less toxic than those obtained by ligand exchange. Inhibition of HIV-1 infection was higher for dendronized AuNPs than for dendrons.Ministerio de Economía y EmpresaComunidad de MadridUniversidad de Alcal

Evaluación y caracterización de superficies extensas de titanio para uso en biomedicina

Hay que tener en cuenta que en los eventos posteriores a la implantación de un biomaterial, lo que se producen son interacciones entre el entorno biológico y la superficie del mismo. Por lo tanto, la superficie del material desempeña un papel extremadamente importante para la integración del implante con el tejido que le rodea y si sus propiedades superficiales no son las adecuadas, el implante puede fallar y ser rechazado por el organismo. Entre las propiedades físico-químicas de las superficies que se ha probado que tienen una gran influencia en su interacción con los fluidos y tejidos biológicos se encuentran la hidrofobicidad e hidrofilicidad de la superficie, que determinan su mojabilidad, la energía libre superficial y la composición química, entre otras. En el presente trabajo, se pretende poner de manifiesto el potencial de las técnicas de caracterización superficial, principalmente XPS y TOF-SIMS, para tener un conocimiento detallado de las propiedades de las superficies de los biomateriales, concretamente del titanio y alguna de sus aleaciones. Para ello, se van a aplicar dichas técnicas a estos materiales en distintas condiciones en las que pueden encontrarse en el campo de la implantología ortopédica y dental.It should be noted that in events subsequent to the implantation of a biomaterial in the human body, interactions are produced between the biological environment and the surface of the material. Likewise, the surface of the synthetic device is in direct contact with the living organism. Therefore major attention must be paid to the surface of a material system as its reaction with the host tissue is often decisive on success or failure of implantation. The various surface parameters that influence the response of the host tissue include wettability, free surface energy and chemical composition, among others. In the present work, we pretend to highlight the potential of surface characterization techniques, mainly XPS and TOF-SIMS, in order to have a detailed knowledge of the properties of biomaterials surfaces, like titanium and some of its alloys. To this purpose, these techniques will be applied to these materials under different conditions in which they can be found in the field of orthopedic and dental implantology

Surface Characterisation of Human Serum Albumin Layers on Activated Ti6Al4V

Adpsortion of protein layers on biomaterials plays an important role in the interactions between implants and the bio-environment. In this context, human serum albumin (HSA) layers have been deposited on modified Ti6Al4V surfaces at different ultraviolet (UV-C) irradiation times to observe possible changes in the adsorbed protein layer. Protein adsorption was done from solutions at concentraions lower than the serum protein concentration, to follow the surface modifications at the beginning of the albumin adhesion process. For this purpose, the surface of the protein-coated samples has been characterized by time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), contact angle and zeta potential measurements. The results obtained show a reduction in the total surface tension and zeta potential of samples treated with UV-C light when coated with a protein layer. Furthermore, the UV-C light treatment applied to titanium alloy surfaces is able to modify the conformation, orientation and packing of the proteins arranged in the adsorbed layer. Low irradiation time generates an unstable surface with the lowest protein adsorption and the highest hydrophobic/hydrophilic protein ratio, indicating a possible denaturalization of the protein on these surfaces. However, surface changes are stabilized after 15 h or UV-C irradiation, favoring the protein adsorption through electrical interactions

Bacterial Response to the Surface Aging of PLA Matrices Loaded with Active Compounds

The use of active components in biomaterials improves the properties of existing ones and makes it possible to obtain new devices with antibacterial properties that prevent infections after implantation, thus guaranteeing the success of the implant. In this work, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and magnesium particles were incorporated into polylactic acid (PLA) films to assess the extent to which progressive aging of the new surfaces resists bacterial colonization processes. For this purpose, the films’ surface was characterized by contact angle measurements, ToF-SIMS and AFM, and adhesion, viability and biofilm growth of Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria on these films were also evaluated. The results show that the inclusion of Mg and CTAB in PLA films changes their surface properties both before and after aging and also modifies bacterial adhesion on the polymer. Complete bactericidal activity is exhibited on non-degraded films and films with CTAB. This antibacterial behavior is maintained after degradation for three months in the case of films containing a higher amount of CTAB

PLA-Mg film degradation under in vitro environments supplemented with glucose and/or ketone bodies

Materials used for the manufacture of implants may suffer alterations in their surface properties as a result of continuous contact with physiological fluids. Moreover, in biodegradable and bioabsorbable materials, such as polylactic acid (PLA), these changes may be more accentuated, and their biological response may be affected by the presence of proteins, enzymes or other compounds of an oxidizing character. This research proposes to study the degradation of PLA in a close-to-reality environment by supplementing the physiological buffer m-SBF with concentrations of glucose and ketone bodies of healthy individuals. To this end, parameters such as hydrophobicity, surface tension, topography and surface chemical composition of PLA films and PLA films doped with magnesium particles after degradation were evaluated to determine how these components influence these properties compared to degradation in standard buffer. The presence of glucose and/or ketone bodies in the degradation medium of PLA doped with magnesium particles altered the composition of the salt layers absorbed on the surface of the material due to the action of gluconate and/or hydroxybutyrate anions, which were able to coordinate with ions from the solution as well as Mg2+ cations from polymer degradation. The salt accumulation on polymeric films changes the surface mechanical response increasing the Young's modulus after degradation

Bioinspired Quercitrin Nanocoatings: A Fluorescence-Based Method for Their Surface Quantification, and Their Effect on Stem Cell Adhesion and Differentiation to the Osteoblastic Lineage

Polyphenol-based coatings have several potential applications in medical devices, such as cardiovascular stents, contrast agents, drug delivery systems, or bone implants, due to the multiple bioactive functionalities of these compounds. In a previous study, we fabricated titanium surfaces functionalized with flavonoids through covalent chemistry, and observed their osteogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antifibrotic properties in vitro. In this work, we report a fluorescence-based method for the quantification of the amount of flavonoid grafted onto the surfaces, using 2-aminoethyl diphenylborinate, a boronic ester that spontaneously forms a fluorescent complex with flavonoids. The method is sensitive, simple, rapid, and easy to perform with routine equipment, and could be applied to determine the surface coverage of other plant-derived polyphenol-based coatings. Besides, we evaluated an approach based on reductive amination to covalently graft the flavonoid quercitrin to Ti substrates, and optimized the grafting conditions. Depending on the reaction conditions, the amount of quercitrin grafted was between 64 ± 10 and 842 ± 361 nmol on 6.2 mm Ti coins. Finally, we evaluated the in vitro behavior of bone-marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells cultured on the quercitrin nanocoated Ti surfaces. The surfaces functionalized with quercitrin showed a faster stem cell adhesion than control surfaces, probably due to the presence of the catechol groups of quercitrin on the surfaces. A rapid cell adhesion is crucial for the successful performance of an implant. Furthermore, quercitrin-nanocoated surfaces enhanced the mineralization of the cells after 21 days of cell culture. These results indicate that quercitrin nanocoatings could promote the rapid osteointegration of bone implants