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Bioceramic specimens have been prepared by incorporating a small amount of silicon (0.4 wt %) into the structure of hydroxyapatite [Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, HA] via an aqueous precipitation reaction to produce a silicon-substituted hydroxyapatite (Si-HA). The results of chemical analysis confirmed the proposed substitution of the silicon (or silicate) ion for the phosphorus (or phosphate) ion in hydroxyapatite. The Si-HA was produced by first preparing a silicon-substituted apatite (Si-Ap) by a precipitation process. A single-phase Si-HA was obtained by heating/calcining the as-prepared Si-Ap to temperatures above 700 degrees C; no secondary phases, such as tricalcium phosphate (TCP), tetracalcium phosphate (TeCP), or calcium oxide (CaO), were observed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Although the X-ray diffraction patterns of Si-HA and stoichiometric HA appeared to be identical, refinement of the diffraction data revealed some small structural differences between the two materials. The silicon substitution in the HA lattice resulted in a small decrease in the a axis and an increase in the c axis of the unit cell. This substitution also caused a decrease in the number of hydroxyl (OH) groups in the unit cell, which was expected from the proposed substitution mechanism. The incorporation of silicon in the HA lattice resulted in an increase in the distortion of the PO4 tetrahedra, indicated by an increase in the distortion index. Analysis of the Si-HA by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy indicated that although the amount of silicon incorporated into the HA lattice was small, silicon substitution appeared to affect the FTIR spectra of HA, in particular the P-O vibrational bands. The results demonstrate that phase-pure silicon-substituted hydroxyapatite may be prepared using a simple precipitation technique.

Studies of cell attachment to collagen-based materials often ignore details of the binding mechanisms—be they integrin-mediated or non-specific. In this work, we have used collagen and gelatin-based substrates with different dimensional characteristics (monolayers, thin films and porous scaffolds) in order to establish the influence of composition, crosslinking (using carbodiimide) treatment and 2D or 3D architecture on integrin-mediated cell adhesion. By varying receptor expression, using cells with collagen-binding integrins (HT1080 and C2C12 L3 cell lines, expressing α2β1, and Rugli expressing α1β1) and a parent cell line C2C12 with gelatin-binding receptors (αvβ3 and α5β1), the nature of integrin binding sites was studied in order to explain the bioactivity of different protein formulations. We have shown that alteration of the chemical identity, conformation and availability of free binding motifs (GxOGER and RGD), resulting from addition of gelatin to collagen and crosslinking, have a profound effect on the ability of cells to adhere to these formulations. Carbodiimide crosslinking ablates integrin-dependent cell activity on both two-dimensional and three-dimensional architectures while the three-dimensional scaffold structure also leads to a high level of non-specific interactions remaining on three-dimensional samples even after a rigorous washing regime. This phenomenon, promoted by crosslinking, and attributed to cell entrapment, should be considered in any assessment of the biological activity of three-dimensional substrates. Spreading data confirm the importance of integrin-mediated cell engagement for further cell activity on collagen-based compositions. In this work, we provide a simple, but effective, means of deconvoluting the effects of chemistry and dimensional characteristics of a substrate, on the cell activity of protein-derived materials, which should assist in tailoring their biological properties for specific tissue engineering applications.Graphical Abstract

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