Protein adhesion study in metal oxides thin films

Abstract

Titanium and its alloys are widely used in dental and orthopedics implants. Various physical and chemical treatments of the Ti surface have been proposed in order to obtain the most biocompatible implant surface. In this way nanostructured metal oxide coatings, such as TiO2 and ZnO, has shown good results in the interaction with proteins, which is the initial process in order to have interaction from the biological environment to the material. The profile of these proteins, which will make the interaction with the cells, depends on the physical-chemistry properties of the metallic oxides surface such as thickness, homogeneity, porosity, roughness and wettability. Reactive functional groups can easily be bounded on the titanium coated with metal oxides to yield surfaces with greater stability and functionality. The addition of these monolayers constitutes an exceptional type of surface, which is protein-resistant due to steric repulsion and excluded volume effects. Combining the functionalization and the sol-gel process to produce metal oxide coatings, the surface properties of titanium can be controlled to promote protein and cell adhesion. Proteins from extracellular matrix (ECM), such as dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1) and osteopontin (OPN), contributes to the formation and maintenance of mineralized tissues as bone and dentin. In this way, DMP1 and OPN may promote an osteoinductive effect on the implanted material. The aim of this work is to study the adhesion process of DMP1 and OPN onto functionalized metal oxide surfaces, which might improve the osseointegration of the implanted material. (AU)