The wound-healing process around implants differs from that of a normal healing without the inserted material. In this work, the composition of a natural wound surface was mimicked through clotting of a thin human blood plasma film with approximate ellipsometric thickness of 100nm onto differently pretreated silicon surfaces. Their stability was investigated by incubations in sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) solutions. The enzymatic clot degradation was induced through addition of human tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) to the plasma and the surface protein remnants after the degradation were analyzed with polyclonal antibodies. The results show that the plasma films were not SDS resistant on hydrophilic silicon. However, stability was obtained after preparation on hydrophobic silicon or when albumin or fibrinogen was immobilized to silicon before the plasma incubations. Different surfaces bound different polyclonal antibodies after the clot film degradation. The methods indicate a simple means to improve or reestablish a normal tissue inflammatory response around biomaterials. Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.

The possibility to load submicrometer porous titanium surfaces with relatively small proteins, albumin and immunoglobulin G (IgG) was investigated. The loading ability is of interest due to the possibility of slow release of molecules from biomaterial surfaces, and may be important for the manipulation of wound healing around prostheses. Iodine-125 (125I) labeled albumin and IgG were adsorbed onto smooth and to porous titanium with a pore diameter of 200-300 nm. The smooth and porous surfaces were divided into three groups: hydrophilic, hydrophobic, or to amine-terminated silane (3- aminopropyltriethoxysilane) that bound proteins via glutaraldehyde. The protein solution pH and protein concentrations were varied, and the adsorption experiments made without or in the presence of calcium and magnesium ions. The adsorbed amounts were quantified with a gamma counter. Two to eleven times more proteins adsorbed onto porous than smooth surfaces and the adsorbed amounts increased with increasing protein concentration (0.1-10 mg/ml) during a constant incubation time. The elutability by sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) was incomplete on porous surfaces. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The release of inflammatory mediators around implants and normal wounds may differ due to the presence of the solid surface. In this study, machined and sub-micron porous titanium implants with and without a 100nm thick blood plasma clot were inserted subcutaneously in rat for 3 or 24h. The cell recruitment to the interfaces, in vivo secretion of TNF-a and the ex vivo PMA-induced production of reactive oxygen species were subsequently investigated. The thin plasma clot coating gave rise to an increased ex vivo PMA-stimulated oxygen radical production by implant-associated cells at both implantation times, and an increased cell recruitment at 24h. The total TNF-a secretion was highest at sham sites and plasma clot-coated porous titanium at 24h. After 24h, the cell-type pattern in the exudate around the porous plasma-coated implant was more similar to that found at sham sites than that adjacent to the non-coated implants. No differences were observed between the machined Ti and the machined sub-micron porous Ti. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Machined and machined submicron porous titanium, with and without a thin blood plasma coating (100 nm), were implanted for 7 or 28 days in subcutaneous pockets on the back of the rat. After explantation the specimens were analyzed by light microscopy with respect to thickness of the fibrous capsule, the fluid space width between implants and fibrous capsule, and formation of blood vessels. The results at 7 days indicate a thinnest fluid space for the plasma clot coated porous titanium surface, and the spaces vanished at the light microscopic level after 28 days outside all the analyzed surfaces. The thickness of the fibrous capsule increased outside the different surfaces at 7-28 days, and in this respect no significant differences were observed between the different surfaces at any time. Analysis of neovascularization showed that the number of vessels and proportion of vessels in the fibrous capsule increased with time at all surfaces, except machined Ti where the number instead decreased from 7 to 28 days. The average distance between the blood vessels and the fluid space increased with time for all types of surfaces. The results in the present study indicate that the healing process around titanium can be modulated by porosity and thin pre-prepared plasma coatings. (C) Kluwer Academic Publishers.

The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the stability and bone ingrowth capacity to screw-shaped titanium implants with five different surface treatments. The implants were: (1) standard turned with a thin blood plasma coat (TP), (2) NaOH-etched dito with pore size 0.2-0.3µm (E), (3) NaOH-etched with pore size 0.2-0.3µm and a thin blood plasma coat (EP), (4) electrochemically oxidised with pore size 1-2µm (O), (5) electrochemically oxidised with pore size 1-2µm and a thin blood plasma coat (OP). A total of 66 implants were divided into the above-described five groups and inserted for 4 weeks into tibia and femur of 11 rabbits. The implants were evaluated by resonance frequency (RF) measurements at the time of insertion and removal, and analysed histomorphometrically at removal. The RF measurements showed that the implant stability was lower in soft bone compared to dense and increased with time. No significant differences were observed between the different surface modifications. The histomorphometric analysis revealed no statistically significant differences between the implants regarding bone-to-metal contact (BMC) and bone area inside the threads (BA). The above results indicate that thin blood plasma-coated and non-coated screw-shaped titanium implants with turned, NaOH-etched and electrochemically etched surface profiles integrate similarly to bone at 1 month of implantation. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Crosslinked multilayer protein films were prepared from fibrinogen, albumin, IgG, a combination of fibrinogen and catalase, and blood plasma on silicon by ethyl-dimethyl-aminopropylcarbodiimide and N-hydroxy-succinimide coupling chemistry. The 4-70 nm thick films were placed in blood plasma and the additional protein deposition measured by null ellipsometry after 5 or 60 min of incubation. The activation of the complement system and intrinsic pathway of coagulation were indicated through the subsequent binding of anti-C3c, anti-C3d, anti-properdin and anti-HMWK on top of the surface bound blood plasma. The proportion of Annexin V, Propidium Iodide and 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole positive cells, and the secretion of tumor necrosis factor a (TNF-a) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were analysed in a monocyte culture. The results show that well known protein coupling techniques can be used for the preparation of protein layers with well controlled thickness. The layers possess low contact activation of blood plasma and induce different release of TNF-a and IL-10 in monocyte cultures. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.