Behaviour of osteoblast-like cells cultured on titanium coated with FA/glass composite coating

The main priority in designing reproducibly successful dental implants is to generate a surface that accelerates bone formation at the bone/implant interface. This is especially true in areas where bone quality and quantity are insufficient to fully stabilise implant prosthesis. Fluorapatite (FA) has comparable biocompatibility to hydroxyapatite (HA) and has been used as a coating of titanium implants. In this study the effect of composite coatings containing FA at two different ratio glasses: FA (4:1 and 14:1) on osteoblast cell adhesion, bone nodule formation and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was investigated in vitro. The biological behaviour of fibroblast cells on both of these composite coatings was studied as well.The results showed that the composite coatings 4:1 and 14:1 were biocompatible to osteoblast-like cells. The composite coatings induced bone-like nodule formation and the attached osteoblasts exhibited gradual increase of ALP activity with time. The composite coatings containing low FA content were more biocompatible to fibroblast cells compared with high FA content.

► Hydroxyapatite crystals improve cell adhesion.
► The biocompatibility of FA is comparable to HA.
► Fluoroapatite crystals biocompatible to osteoblast like-cells
► The biocompatibility to fibroblast cells decreases with increasing FA.
► Magnesium has a considerable effect on osteoblast adhesion.