Study of oral microbial adhesion and biofilm formation on the surface of nano-fluorohydroxyapatite/polyetheretherketone composite

Abstract

To develop novel polyetheretherketone (PEEK) based nanocomposites which possess the favorable antibacterial property, and to investigate the oral microbial adhesion and biofilm formation on the surfaces of PEEK, nano-fluorohydroxyapatite (n-FHA)-PEEK and nano-hydroxyaptite (n-HA)-PEEK. The bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation on the surfaces of n-FHA-PEEK, n-HA-PEEK were investigated via microbial viability assay kit and laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM), respectively, with pure PEEK as control group. No significantly statistical difference were found in the bacterial adhesion amounts on the surfaces of n-FHA-PEEK, n-HA-PEEK and PEEK at 1 h and 4 h. However, the number of bacteria on the n-FHA-PEEK surface decreased dramatically at 2 h (0.496 ± 0.008) compared with n-HA-PEEK groups (0.543 ± 0.015, P < 0.01). Although the biofilms formation on surfaces observed by LSCM had similar morphology and thickness at 3, 7, 14 d, that on the n-FHA-PEEK surface showed the highest dead-to-live bacteria ratio among the three materials at 14 d. The combination of n-HA, especially for the n-FHA could inhibit the bacteria adhesion and accelerate the bacterial death, eventually may have an influence on the structure of biofilms and reduce the risk of peri-implantitis. Therefore, n-FHA-PEEK nanocomposites presented a good prospect for clinical applications as dental implant materials.