ANODIC TIO_2 NANOTUBULAR ARRAYS WITH PRE-SYNTHESIZED HYDROXYAPATITE - A PROMISING APPROACH TO ENHANCE THE BIOCOMPATIBILITY OF TITANIUM

摘要

Hydroxyapatite (HA) coating has been widely applied on metallic biomedical implants to enhance their biocompatibility. It has been reported that HA coating can be formed on annealed anodic titanium dioxide nanotubular arrays after immersion in simulated biological fluid (SBF) for about 14 days. In the present study, we apply an alternative immersion method (AIM) to form pre-synthesized HA on TiO_2 nanotubular arrays. An interdigitation phenomenon of the MG63 human osteosarcoma cells with the TiO_2 nanotubular arrays with pre-synthesized HA is observed in the in vitro test, indicating excellent biocompatibility and bioactivity for present method. The results demonstrate that the AIM treatment is indeed suitable for the TiO_2 nanotubular arrays and highly enhance the biocompatibility in comparison with the existing methods, i.e. the annealing of the as-formed TiO_2 nanotubular arrays.