Surface energetical and cell biological characterization of ceramic biomaterials within the ternary system Al2O3-SiO2-TiO2

Interactions at the interface to the biosystem play an important role for a long-term stable contact between the biosystem and implant materials. The specific variation of the material composition represents one option to aff ect the surface properties and to investigate their influence at biocompati bility. In the present study such a synthesis variation of ceramic biomater ials within the ternary system Al2O3 - SiO2 - TiO2 was examined since by va rying the material composition the surface energy can be varied and thus ad apted to the requirements of the biosystem respectively the test cells. Tha t's why for the planned in-vitro investigations ceramics on the basis of th e ternary system Al2O3 - SiO2 - TiO2 with variable composition and sufficie nt densities were developed by means of soi-gel techniques. It could be dem onstrated that the surface energy respectively the surface enthalpy can be affected by a variable material composition. In this context the silicon ox ide seems to be of special importance. Thus it could be shown that if the c oncentration of silicon oxide increases surface tension and polarity of the examined material surface increases too. Although the realized in-vitro te sts confirm a good biocompatibility of the involved ceramics concerning cel l proliferation and metabolic activity a significant correlation between su rface properties and the observed cellular response could not be detected. Probably this result is ascribable only to the comparatively small paramete r variations which were achieved by varying the material composition. A dir ect correlation between the cell behavior and the composition of the invest igated materials based on the interface energy concept could not be proved for the ternary system Al2O3 - SiO2 - TiO2 in the present study.