A microporous surface containing Si3N4/Ta microparticles of PEKK exhibits both antibacterial and osteogenic activity for inducing cellular response and improving osseointegration

Xinglong Hu; Shiqi Mei; Fan Wang; Songchao Tang; Dong Xie; Chao Ding; Wenli Du; Jun Zhao; Lili Yang; Zhaoying Wu; Jie Wei

doi:10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.02.027

A microporous surface containing Si₃N₄/Ta microparticles of PEKK exhibits both antibacterial and osteogenic activity for inducing cellular response and improving osseointegration

Bioact Mater. 2021 Mar 9;6(10):3136-3149. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.02.027. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Authors

Xinglong Hu¹, Shiqi Mei¹, Fan Wang¹, Songchao Tang¹, Dong Xie², Chao Ding¹, Wenli Du¹, Jun Zhao³, Lili Yang², Zhaoying Wu⁴, Jie Wei¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China.
² Spine Center, Department of Orthopaedics, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200003, China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai Research Institute of Stomatology, Department of Orthodontics, Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China.
⁴ School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, China.

Abstract

As an implantable biomaterial, polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) exhibits good mechanical strength but it is biologically inert while tantalum (Ta) possesses outstanding osteogenic bioactivity but has a high density and elastic modulus. Also, silicon nitride (SN) has osteogenic and antibacterial activity. In this study, a microporous surface containing both SN and Ta microparticles on PEKK (STP) exhibiting excellent osteogenic and antibacterial activity was created by sulfonation. Compared with sulfonated PEKK (SPK) without microparticles, the surface properties (roughness, surface energy, hydrophilicity and protein adsorption) of STP significantly increased due to the SN and Ta particles presence on the microporous surface. In addition, STP also exhibited outstanding antibacterial activity, which inhibited bacterial growth in vitro and prevented bacterial infection in vivo because of the presence of SN particles. Moreover, the microporous surface of STP containing both SN and Ta particles remarkably induced response (e.g., proliferation and differentiation) of rat bone mesenchymal stem (rBMS) cells in vitro. Furthermore, STP significantly improved new bone regeneration and osseointegration in vivo. Regarding the induction of cellular response in vitro and improvement of osseointegration in vivo, the microporous surface containing Ta was better than the surface with SN particles. In conclusion, STP with optimized surface properties activated cellular responses in vitro, enhanced osseointegration and prevented infection in vivo. Therefore, STP possessed the dual biofunctions of excellent osteogenic and antibacterial activity, showing great potential as a bone substitute.

Keywords: Antibacterial activity; Osseointegration; Polyetherketoneketone; Silicon nitride; Tantalum.