Background: Titanium oxides are known to be good hemocompatible, therefore they are suggested as coatings for blood contacting implants. But little is known about the influence of physical characteristics like crystal structure, roughness and electronic state on the activation of blood platelets and the blood clotting cascade.
Methods: Titanium oxide films were produced by metal plasma deposition and implantation in the form of rutile, crystalline and nanocrystalline anatase + brookite and amorphous TiO2. The redox potential was reduced by implantation of chromium ions, the Fermi level of the semiconductive oxide was shifted by ion implantation of the electron donor phosphorous. Hemocompatibility was determined by measuring the adhesion of blood platelets, their P-selectine expression, and of the blood clotting time on these samples.
Results: The crystalline titanium oxides had a slightly higher activation of the clotting cascade but lower platelet adhesion than nanocrystalline and amorphous titanium oxides. The surface roughness below 50 nm had no obvious effect. Both, implantation of phosphorous or chromium ions, strongly reduced the activation of the clotting cascade, but only the phosphorous implanted surface also showed a reduced platelet activation, whereas platelet adhesion and activation was strongly increased on the chromium implanted surfaces.
Conclusion: Phosphorous doping of rutile TiO2 can increase its hemocompatibility, both concerning blood platelets and blood clotting cascade, but the biochemical mechanism has to be worked out.