Colonization of organoapatite–titanium mesh by preosteoblastic cells

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Abstract
Titanium (Ti) and its alloys continue to serve as successful implant materials for skeletal repair because of their physical properties and biocompatibility. This study investigates the influence of organoapatite (OA), grown directly onto an L‐shaped Ti mesh, on preosteoblastic cellular colonization. Unseeded mesh samples were placed on subconfluent layers of MC3T3‐E1 murine calvaria cells and cultured for up to 2 weeks. Cells demonstrated accelerated colonization of the three‐dimensional OA–Ti mesh substrates over bare Ti controls. Cells also showed significantly increased proliferation on the OA–Ti mesh over bare Ti controls. Cellular differentiation, measured by alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin expression, was observed at late stages of the experiment with no notable differences between OA–Ti mesh and bare Ti controls. These results suggest that OA grown onto porous Ti substrates is capable of inducing accelerated colonization of unseeded implant structures by osteogenic cells. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 67A: 960–969, 2003