Abstract
Titanium dental implants are widely used for the replacement of damaged teeth. However, bacterial infections at the interface between soft tissues and the implant can impair the functionality of the device and lead to failure. In this work, the preparation of an antifouling coating of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on titanium by pulsed electrodeposition was investigated in order to reduce Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) adhesion while maintaining human fibroblast adhesion. Different pulsed conditions were prepared and characterized by contact angle, Focused Ion Beam (FIB), Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy in the Attenuated Total Reflectance mode (ATR-FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XPS tested fibronectin adsorption. S. aureus, E. coli and human fibroblast adhesion was tested in vitro in both mono and co-culture settings. Physicochemical characterization proved useful for confirming the presence of PEG and evaluating the efficiency of the coating methods. Fibronectin adsorption decreased for all of the conditions, but an adsorption of 20% when compared to titanium was maintained, which supported fibroblast adhesion on the surfaces. In contrast, S. aureus and E. coli attachment on coated surfaces decreased up to 90% vs. control titanium. Co-culture studies with the two bacterial strains and human fibroblasts showed the efficacy of the coatings to allow for eukaryotic cell adhesion, even in the presence of pre-adhered bacteria.
Highlights
Titanium dental implants are commonly used for the replacement of lost or damaged teeth.Even though the rate of success is around 95%, infection of the surrounding tissues, known as mucositis and peri-implantitis, can significantly impair the functionality of the implant [1,2,3,4]
The PEGInlayer wasphysical determined by Focused Ion Beam (FIB),were and studied the chemical composition of the coatings
The thickness of the layer was determined by FIB, and the chemical composition of the coatings and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
Summary
Titanium dental implants are commonly used for the replacement of lost or damaged teeth.Even though the rate of success is around 95%, infection of the surrounding tissues, known as mucositis and peri-implantitis, can significantly impair the functionality of the implant [1,2,3,4]. Several strategies have been developed addressing the initial stages of bacterial adhesion given the difficulty of removal of a mature biofilm. These strategies include changes on the physical and chemical properties of the implant surface (e.g., topography [9,10,11], wettability [12], antibacterial ions incorporation [13,14,15]), coating with polymers to achieve antifouling [16,17,18] or antibacterial effects [19], Coatings 2020, 10, 456; doi:10.3390/coatings10050456 www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings. All of the proposed methods are based on either avoiding the adhesion of bacteria or killing them by direct contact [24,25]
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