Abstract
Surface properties play a critical role in influencing cell responses to a biomaterial. The objectives of this study were (1) to characterize changes in surface properties of zirconia (ZrO2) ceramic after oxygen plasma treatment; and (2) to determine the effect of such changes on biological responses of human osteoblast-like cells (MG63). The results indicated that the surface morphology was not changed by oxygen plasma treatment. In contrast, oxygen plasma treatment to ZrO2 not only resulted in an increase in hydrophilicity, but also it retained surface hydrophilicity after 5-min treatment time. More importantly, surface properties of ZrO2 modified by oxygen plasma treatment were beneficial for cell growth, whereas the surface roughness of the materials did not have a significant efficacy. It is concluded that oxygen plasma treatment was certified to be effective in modifying the surface state of ZrO2 and has the potential in the creation and maintenance of hydrophilic surfaces and the enhancement of cell proliferation and differentiation.
Highlights
Due to the merits of zirconia, such as high mechanical strength and toughness, and good abrasion resistance and chemical stability in vivo, it is currently used in the femoral head of hip prostheses and dental restoration [1,2]
In a previous study [12], we found that the water contact angle of polydimethylsiloxane surfaces varied from 103° to approximately 10° after oxygen plasma treatment
The surface morphology was does not altered by oxygen plasma treatment, in agreement with previous studies [11,14], possibly because the used power of plasma was not enough to change the morphology of hard ZrO2 surface
Summary
Due to the merits of zirconia, such as high mechanical strength and toughness, and good abrasion resistance and chemical stability in vivo, it is currently used in the femoral head of hip prostheses and dental restoration [1,2]. Given that biological tissues interact with only the outermost atomic layers of an implant, a number of surface modification methods to improve inert properties of the ZrO2 surfaces in an effort of enhancing cell-material interaction have been introduced. They included roughening and acid-etching [4], micro-arc oxidation [5,6], bioactive coating [7,8], laser modification [9] and plasma treatment [10,11]. Compared with the complex methods of coating, oxygen plasma treatment is relatively inexpensive and time efficient, as it is simple to transform the hydrophobic hydrocarbon surfaces of ZrO2 to the hydrophilic surfaces
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