THE EFFECT ON IMMUNOCYTES OF ANODIC OXIDE TITANIUM AFTER HYDROTHERMALTREATMENT

All dental root implants come in contact with the oral epithelium, and many complex factors are found to arise in this region. In order to p erform a successful dental root implantation, it is necessary to clari fy the interaction of the dental root implant material with the host d efense mechanisms involved in the specific and nonspecific immuno resp onses to many antigens in oral bacteria and their components. Recently , focusing on developing the dental root implant, the Nikon Corporatio n improved the surface characteristics of pure titanium even further b y developing a hydroxyapatite (HA) layer formed on an anodic titanium oxide film containing Ca and P via hydrothermal treatment (SA treatmen t). However, since little is known about the effect of SA-treated pure titanium (HA/Ti) on the defense mechanisms of the oral membrane epith elium, we investigated (1) the in vitro proliferation of murine spleni c B lymphotocytes on the surface of HA/Ti in the presence of three lip opolysaccharide (LPS) concentrations and (2) interleukin-(1 alpha) (IL -1 alpha) production hi the reaction of human peripheral blood mononuc lear cells (PBM cells) on the surface of HA/Ti under the same concentr ations. After culture, murine splenic lymphocytes were measured by upt ake of H-3-thymidine, and cytokine release (IL-1 alpha) from PBM cells was measured by ELISA. Results showed that HA/Ti had hardly any effec t on the LPS-induced proliferation of B lymphocytes and IL-la: product ion. In vitro investigations of the effects of HA/Ti on the LPS-induce d proliferation of murine splenic B lymphocytes and IL-1 alpha from PB M cells might be a useful way of elucidating the defense mechanism bet ween implants and the oral epithelium. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc .