In addition to mechanical and chemical stability, the third design goal of the ideal bone-implant coating is the ability to support osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Plasma-sprayed TiO(2)-based bone-implant coatings exhibit excellent long-term mechanical properties, but their applications in bone implants are limited by their bioinertness. We have successfully produced a TiO(2) nanostructured (grain size <50 nm) based coating charged with 10% wt hydroxyapatite (TiO(2)-HA) sprayed by high-velocity oxy-fuel. On Ti64 substrates, the novel TiO(2)-HA coating bond 153× stronger and has a cohesive strength 4× higher than HA coatings. The HA micro- and nano-sized particles covering the TiO(2)-HA coating surface are chemically bound to the TiO(2) coating matrix, producing chemically stable coatings under high mechanical solicitations. In this study, we elucidated the TiO(2)-HA nanocomposite coating surface chemistry, and in vitro osteoinductive potential by culturing human MSCs (hMSCs) in basal and in osteogenic medium (hMSC-ob). We assessed the following hMSCs and hMSC-ob parameters over a 3-week period: (i) proliferation; (ii) cytoskeleton organization and cell-substrate adhesion; (iii) coating-cellular interaction morphology and growth; and (iv) cellular mineralization. The TiO(2) -HA nanocomposite coatings demonstrated 3× higher hydrophilicity than HA coatings, a TiO(2)-nanostructured surface in addition to the chemically bound HA micron- and nano-sized rod to the surface. hMSCs and hMSC-ob demonstrated increased proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation on the nanostructured TiO(2)-HA coatings, suggesting the TiO(2)-HA coatings nanostructure surface properties induce osteogenic differentiation of hMSC and support hMSC-ob osteogenic potential better than our current golden standard HA coating.
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