Effect of metal released from Ti alloy wear powder on cell viability

Ti alloy disks were separately worn with pins of the same alloy or apatite ceramics in Eagle's medium. Wear powders sterilized in either a heating ove n or ethanol were separately added to culture media. The effect of the Ti w ear powder sterilized in a heating oven on cell viability was smaller than that of powder sterilized in ethanol. The effect of wear powder generated w ith the apatite ceramic pin on cell viability was also larger than that gen erated by the alloy pin. The relative growth ratios of L929 and MC3T3-E1cel ls for Ti-6Al-4V alloy wear powder sterilized in ethanol decreased from a s maller amount than those of the Ti-15Zr-4Nb-4Ta and Ti-15Sn-4Nb-2Ta alloy w ear powders. The concentration of V released from the wear powder into the medium increased moderately with increasing wear powder. This effect was ap proximately in agreement with the results estimated from medium extraction with high-purity V particles. For the Ti-15Zr-4Nb-4Ta and Ti-15Sn-4Nb-2Ta a lloy wear powders sterilized in ethanol, the maximum Ti concentration relea sed from the wear powder was approximately in agreement with the results ob tained with high-purity Ti particles. On the contrary, for Zr, Nb, Ta and S n, the maximum metal concentrations released from the wear powders were low er than those obtained with high-purity metal particles.