Owing to its acceptable mechanical properties and excellent biocompatibility, titanium is the metal of choice in orthopaedics and cardiovascular surgery. In many surgical operations, chemicals and/or biomolecules (such as antibiotics or growth factors) are used in conjunction with prostheses, so as to avoid or stimulate targeted biological events. Often, immobilisation instead of release of such molecules is preferred to optimise their effects, thus avoiding ectopic transformations. A versatile method for the functionalisation of pure Ti is shown here, which should facilitate the preparation of purpose-built implants.

In order to avoid the hydrolysable Ti-O-Si bond found in directly silanised Ti, we use organic/inorganic silica colloids, derived from commercially available 25 nm Ludoxâ silica nanoparticles. Prior to deposition, the particles are functionalised by a propylsemicarbazide moiety, which confers them excellent reactivity towards carbonyl containing molecules (e.g. on appropriately designed linkers, or oxidised glycoproteins). Semicarbazide chemistry allows a highly chemoselective, covalent attachment of the molecules of interest to the colloids. After spin-coating onto the Ti substrates, the colloids were shown by SEM to form a uniform layer, and to be very strongly adsorbed; the reactivity of the supported semicarbazide functionalities being maintained.

Biological assays with MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts revealed an excellent cytocompatibility as shown by the assessment of cell viability, vitality and morphology.

In our further studies, growth factors will be bound on the functionalized surfaces, and their efficiency on the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts will be tested.

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