Nanoporous titanium surfaces for sustained elution of proteins and antibiotics

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 14;9(3):e92080. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092080. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Current medically relevant metals for prosthetic reconstructions enjoy a relatively good success rate, but their performance drops significantly in patients with compromised health status, and post-surgical infections still remain an important challenge. To address these problems, different nanotechnology-based strategies have been exploited to create implantable metals with an enhanced bioactivity and antibacterial capacities. Among these, oxidative nanopatterning has emerged as a very effective approach to engender nanoporous surfaces that stimulate and guide the activity of adhering cells. The resulting nanoporosity is also attractive because it offers nanoconfined volumes that can be exploited to load bioactive compounds and modulate their release over time. Such extended elution is needed since a single exposure to growth factors and/or antibiotics, for instance, may not be adequate to further sustain bone regeneration and/or to counteract bacterial colonization. In this article, we assessed the capacities of nanoporous titanium surfaces generated by oxidative nanopatterning to provide controlled and sustained elution of proteins and antibiotic molecules. To this end, we have selected bovine serum albumin (BSA) and vancomycin to reflect commonly used compounds, and investigated their adsorption and elution by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy. Our results demonstrate that while the elution of albumin is not significantly affected by the nanoporosity, in the case of vancomycin, nanoporous surfaces provided an extended release. These findings were successively correlated to the establishment of interactions with the surface and physical-entrapment effects exerted by the nanopores, ultimately highlighting their synergistic contribution to the release profiles and thus their importance in the design of nanostructured eluting platforms for applications in medicine.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry*
  • Cattle
  • Nanopores*
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine / chemistry*
  • Surface Properties
  • Time Factors
  • Titanium / chemistry*
  • Vancomycin / chemistry*

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine
  • Vancomycin
  • Titanium

Grants and funding

uOttawa Faculty of Engineering start up funds; Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC); Leaders Opportunity Fund from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI); and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI). The funding agencies did not participate in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. They provided money used to pay for materials, students, and equipment.