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Abstract
Metal implants used in trauma surgeries are sometimes difficult to remove after the completion of the healing process due to the strong integration with the bone tissue. Periodic surface micro- and nanostructures can directly influence cell adhesion and differentiation on metallic implant materials. However, the fabrication of such structures with classical lithographic methods is too slow and cost-intensive to be of practical relevance. Therefore, we used laser beam interference ablation structuring to systematically generate periodic nanostructures on titanium and steel plates. The newly developed laser process uses a special grating interferometer in combination with an industrial laser scanner and ultrashort pulse laser source, allowing for fast, precise, and cost-effective modification of metal surfaces in a single step process. A total of 30 different periodic topologies reaching from linear over crossed to complex crossed nanostructures with varying depths were generated on steel and titanium plates and tested in bone cell culture. Reduced cell adhesion was found for four different structure types, while cell morphology was influenced by two different structures. Furthermore, we observed impaired osteogenic differentiation for three structures, indicating reduced bone formation around the implant. This efficient way of surface structuring in combination with new insights about its influence on bone cells could lead to newly designed implant surfaces for trauma surgeries with reduced adhesion, resulting in faster removal times, reduced operation times, and reduced complication rates.
Highlights
The World Health Organization reported distal radius fractures among the ten most expensive medical incidents worldwide
Strong effects on cell adhesion were observed for deep structures, while only minor effects were detected for shallow structures
To test if the decrease of osteogenic differentiation markers in combination with a round cell morphology could be a reflection of chondrogenic differentiation, we examined the expression of chondrogenic-relevant genes (Aggrecan, SRY-Box Transcription Factor 9 (Sox9) and Collagen 2), but we did not find an indication that this was the case (Figure S3)
Summary
The World Health Organization reported distal radius fractures among the ten most expensive medical incidents worldwide. These fractures are most prevalent in women older than 50 years who suffer from osteoporosis [1,2,3]. An important early step for fracture healing is the immobilization of the broken bones, which provides support for the biological aspect of the bone healing process. There are several options to adjust and immobilize broken bones in their appropriate position such as screws, plates, Kirschner wires, cerclage wires, locking pins, or specialized devices such as external/internal. Like the distal radius, intramedullary nailing is the gold standard for fracture management [4,5,6].
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