The Design and Manufacture of Biomedical Surfaces

Abstract

Surfaces are the primary place of contact between a biomaterial and its host organism. Typically, prostheses have to fulfil demanding structural and mechanical requirements, yet the material best for those functions may be bio-incompatible. Surface treatment or coating provides a means to overcome that problem, which means both integration within the host physiology and stabilization with respect to corrosion and wear. The adsorption of biomacromolecules is pivotal for biocompatibility. The impossibility of keeping proteins away from most implants means that very careful consideration has to be given to this aspect, and both prevention (for bloodstream implants) and promotion (for bone replacement and repair) occur with equal importance. This paper also considers the metrology of relevant physical and chemical aspects of surfaces.

Enhanced protein adsorption and cellular adhesion using transparent titanate nanotube thin films made by a simple and inexpensive room temperature process: Application to optical biochips

“…Hence, it is advantageous for the sensor surface to be as large as possible because more analytes can be captured. Although many techniques for surface structuring of materials exist [2], a material that can simply be applied as a coating to practically any surface is attractive. In this paper, we propose the use of the recently created titanate nanotubes as such a coating.…”

“…Protein adsorption on surfaces is important in many fields of bio-and nanotechnology, e.g., for biosensors and biochips, drug delivery materials [3][4][5], implant and other medical device coatings enhancement of surface adhesion is advantageous [2,13,25]. A commonly used strategy to improve adhesion is to increase the specific area of the surface [26][27][28].…”

Comparison between shot peening and abrasive blasting processes as deposition methods for hydroxyapatite coatings onto a titanium alloy

“…These phases have a quicker resorption rate than crystalline HA and are associated with woven bone formation as well as issues at the coating-implant interface [3,4]. Furthermore, the orthopaedics industry is moving towards carefully constructed surfaces with biologically optimised three dimensional metallic structures [5,6]. The commonly applied plasma spray coatings are relatively thick (typically 20 -100µm), which may blanket the carefully controlled surface structures and alter the pore sizes [7].…”

Anodic oxidation of the Ti–13Nb–13Zr alloy

“…Vanadium oxide (V 2 O 5 ) exhibits relatively good solubility and high toxicity in the living organisms. Al has well-documented toxic effects in the serum or urine of the patients who have total hip replacements composed of the titanium alloy [13,14]. In addition, aluminum has a causal relationship with the neurotoxicity and senile dementia of the Alzheimer type [15][16][17].…”