Technological watch

Titanium (Ti) alloys have been extensively utilized in bone and tissue engineering in last decades, but they suffer several drawbacks including low strength, bactericidal properties, and metal ion release. Beta Ti alloys are promising materials for load?bearing orthopedic implants due to their excellent corrosion resistance and biocompatibility, low elastic modulus and moderate strength. This study aimed to develop new beta?Ti alloys including Ti?Nb?Zr?Sn (Ti?Sn) and Ti?Nb?Zr?Ta?Si (Ti?Si) to improve the structural and biochemical features of the existing Ti alloys to meet clinical requirements as orthopedic implants. The new Ti?Sn and Ti?Si alloys were fabricated using mechanical ball milling and spark plasma sintering techniques. The fabricated Ti?Sn and Ti?Si alloys and commercially pure Ti alloys were compared on hydrophilicity, surface characteristics and cytotoxicity, proliferative and osteogenic differentiation effects as well as biocompatibility in the human bone osteosarcoma cell line (MG63). The new beta Ti alloys showed no significant differences in proliferation and cytotoxicity on the MG63 cells. Both Ti?Sn and Ti?Si alloys, compared to the commercial pure Ti, improved the adhesion, proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity, extracellular mineralization, and osteocalcin and upregulated the expressions of the runt?related transcription factor 2, osterix, and collagen mRNA levels in the MG63 cells. The Ti?Si alloy showed greater cell proliferation and osteoblastic protein expression compared to the Ti?Sn alloy. The Ti?Si alloy showed a better biological pro?le than Ti and Ti?Sn alloys based on the initial attachment of the MG63 osteoblast cells on these materials. The novel beta Ti alloys exhibited promising potentials in orthopedic applications.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.