A novel cytocompatible, hierarchical porous Ti6Al4V scaffold with immobilized silver nanoparticles

Owing to their mechanical properties and bioinertness titanium alloys remain the preferred load-bearing implant material in orthopedics. However, unsatisfactory osteointegration and risks of infection are the two major problems. Herein, Ti6Al4V prostheses with 3D hierarchical (macro/micro-nano) porosity were constructed by combining the state-of-art electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing (AM) process with a traditional micro-arc oxidization (MAO) technique for enhanced integration with bone tissues, and as a measure to improve their antimicrobial properties, releasable silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were homogeneously immobilized on the multi-scaled porous surfaces via a mussel-inspired strategy. The cytocompatibility of the engineered scaffolds (EBM-MAO/Ag) outperformed the untreated, due to synergistic benefits from micro/nano-porous topography and adhesive chemical composition. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Grants of the Project of Scientific and Technical Plan of Beijing [Z141100002814008]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [31370954]; State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics Open Research Fund of China (Chien-Shiung Wu Laboratory); National Basic Research Program (973) of China [2012CB619102]SCI(E)EIARTICLEchengyan@pku.edu.cn143-14615