Investigating acquisition of magnetic properties and biocompatibility of Gadolinium substituted Strontium phosphosilicate for magnetic imaging in orthopaedics

Abstract

The ability to acquire in situ magnetic resonance properties in biological apatites to facilitate real time MRI was investigated by substituting a series of hierarchically increasing Gadolinium over Strontium in the study. Samples were synthesized using an aqueous sol–gel pathway to ensure maximum reactivity and favour Silica-based species. Structural features were investigated using diffraction and IR spectra followed by VSM to calculate magnetization as a function of the field revealing the paramagnetic behaviour of the samples when doped. Morphological features visualized through FE-SEM showed sustained structural integrity of parent material characteristic of the P63/M space group and the EDAX spectra confirmed the hypothesised substitution when sintered as well. When immersed with SBF a loss of secondary phases and formation of amorphous calcium phosphate flakes were confirmed by diffraction and morphological studies. Biocompatibility was evaluated against first contact cells i.e. RBC via haemolytic study and L929 cells wherein Alamar assay show the samples least toxic at 25 μg/ml beyond which cell viability decreases providing enough evidence of applicability of Strontium phosphosilicate as a bioactive ceramic.