Osteoblast proliferation on neat and apatite-like calcium phosphate-coated titanium foam scaffolds

The biocompatibility and the load-bearing ability of lightweight titanium made it possible to be used as a biomaterial, especially in hip revision and fixation surgery. It was initially shown that sand-blasted or surface-roughened titanium implants had an improved bone-bonding ability over the bioinert metallic surfaces. Plasma-spraying of a phase mixture of loosely-attached calcium phosphates on titanium implants further improved their in vivo bone-bonding ability. However, stoichiometric calcium hydroxyapatite ceramic of high crystallinity is known to have poor in vivo resorbability, and is shy of taking part in bone remodeling and of being resorbed by the osteoclasts. Supersaturated calcium phosphate (CaP) solutions, such as synthetic body fluids (SBF), on the other hand, are able to form “carbonated, hydrophilic and apatite-like” CaP nanoaggregates on titanium surfaces. A Tris-buffered SBF solution with an HCO3− concentration of 27 mM was used in this study. Neat, NaOH-etched, and SBF-coated (biomimetic coating) titanium foams were compared with in vitro cell culture experiments by using rat osteoblasts. SBF-coated foams were found to yield the highest protein concentration at the end of the in vitro culture tests. Such biomimetic coatings were easily formed on flat strips, springs, or 3D foams of titanium, without any geometric constraints. The coated titanium springs and foams were characterized by using XRD, SEM, and FTIR.