Nano-porous Alumina, a Potential Bone Implant Coating

This thesis describes a method of growing a highly adherent nano-porous alumina coating on titanium implant materials, a design which might be useful in hard tissue replacement. Alumina layers were formed by anodisation of aluminium, which had been deposited on titanium and titanium alloys by electron beam evaporation. Mechanical testing showed the coatings’ shear and tensile strength to be ~20MPa and ~10MPa respectively. Human osteoblasts were cultured on purchased membranes, produced in the same way with similar characteristics as the coating mentioned above. Cell viability, proliferation and phenotype were assessed by measuring redox reactions, DNA, tritiated thymidine incorporation and alkaline phosphatase production. Results showed normal osteoblastic growth patterns with increasing cell numbers the first two weeks after which cell growth decreased and alkaline phosphatase production increased, indicating that osteoblastic phenotype was retained on the alumina. Flattened cell morphology with filipodia attached to the pores of the material was seen. Implants frequently trigger inflammatory responses due to accumulation and activation of cells such as polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMN), also called neutrophils. Activation and morphology of human PMN in response to nano-porous alumina with two pore sizes (20 and 200 nm) was investigated by luminol-amplified chemiluminescence, granule enzyme deposition measurement, optical and scanning electron microscopy. Activation was observed on both membrane types, however less pronounced on the 200 nm alumina. For both membranes a decrease in activation was seen after coating with fibrinogen, collagen I and serum (more pronounced for the two latter). On fibrinogen-coated alumina many flattened cells were observed, indicating frustrated phagocytosis. Finally when culturing osteoblasts on non-coated and collagen-coated membranes (after exposure to PMN) many more cells had established on the protein-coated surface after 24 h. The overall results indicate that it might be possible to produce a novel bone implant coating by anodisation of aluminium deposited on titanium and that this material will support osteoblast adhesion and proliferation. Furthermore neutrophil activation can be suppressed when coating the alumina with collagen I, which is beneficial considering the fact that this protein also is essential for bone formation