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. 2024 Aug 31;15(9):253.
doi: 10.3390/jfb15090253.

Assessing Microstructural, Biomechanical, and Biocompatible Properties of TiNb Alloys for Potential Use as Load-Bearing Implants

Eyyup Murat Karakurt  1 , Yan Huang  1 , Yuksel Cetin  2 , Alper Incesu  3 , Huseyin Demirtas  3 , Mehmet Kaya  4 , Yasemin Yildizhan  2 , Merve Tosun  2 , Gulsah Akbas  2
Affiliations

Assessing Microstructural, Biomechanical, and Biocompatible Properties of TiNb Alloys for Potential Use as Load-Bearing Implants

Eyyup Murat Karakurt et al. J Funct Biomater. .

Abstract

Titanium-Niobium (TiNb) alloys are commonly employed in a number of implantable devices, yet concerns exist regarding their use in implantology owing to the biomechanical mismatch between the implant and the host tissue. Therefore, to balance the mechanical performance of the load-bearing implant with bone, TiNb alloys with differing porosities were fabricated by powder metallurgy combined with spacer material. Microstructures and phase constituents were characterized with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanical properties were tested by uniaxial compression, and the corrosion performance was determined via a potentiodynamic polarization experiment. To evaluate a highly matched potential implant with the host, biocompatibilities such as cell viability and proliferation rate, fibronectin adsorption, plasmid-DNA interaction, and an SEM micrograph showing the cell morphology were examined in detail. The results showed that the alloys displayed open and closed pores with a uniform pore size and distribution, which allowed for cell adherence and other cellular activities. The alloys with low porosity displayed compressive strength between 618 MPa and 1295 MPa, while the alloys with high porosity showed significantly lower strength, ranging from 48 MPa to 331 MPa. The biological evaluation of the alloys demonstrated good cell attachment and proliferation rates.

Keywords: corrosion performance; cytocompatibility; load-bearing implant; powder metallurgy; spacer material.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sintered density of the Ti based alloys.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The graph showing general porosity of the Ti based alloys.
Figure 3
Figure 3
XRD spectra of the (a) Ti-10Nb and Ti-30Nb, (b) Ti-10Nb + 20SM and Ti-30Nb + 20SM alloys.
Figure 4
Figure 4
SEM micrograph indicating EDS points (a) Ti-30Nb, (b) Ti-10Nb + 20SM alloys.
Figure 5
Figure 5
SEM micrographs of the (a) Ti-10Nb, (b) Ti-20Nb, (c) Ti-30Nb (d) Ti-10Nb + 20SM, (e) Ti-20Nb + 20SM, (f) Ti-30Nb + 20SM).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Compressive stress–strain curves showing mechanical performance as a function of (a) Nb concentration and (b) the presence of the spacer material.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Representative polarisation curves of the (a) TixNb alloys and (b) TixNb with spacer material.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The percentage of cell viability of (A) L929 and (B) Saos-2 monolayers exposed to the Ti based alloys and the reference TiGR4 disc extracts for 1 day, 3 days, and 7 days were determined by MTT assay. Data represent mean ± SD, n = 3. *, ** for p < 0.05.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The images of (A) L929 and (B) Saos-2 cell monolayers upon exposure to the Ti-Nb based alloy extracts for 1-day, 3-day, and 7-day were taken by fluorescence microscope with 10× magnification.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Adsorption of Fibronectin on Ti-Nb alloy disks was determined after 2 h incubation at 37 °C in a 5% CO2 atmosphere by ELISA method. Data represent mean ± SD, n = 3. * for p < 0.05.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Plasmid-DNA interaction assay for TiNb based alloys. Migration pattern of plasmid DNA incubated with extracts of the TiNb based alloys and TiRG4 reference materials. The bands are labeled as NC: Nicked circular, SC: Supercoiled, ddH2O served as a negative control.
Figure 12
Figure 12
SEM images of viable (a) L929 cells and (b) Saos-2 cells on the TiGR4 and Ti-Nb based alloys for 1-day, and 7-day with 500× and 2500× magnification.
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