Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
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Organisationseinheit der BAM
The invention of new miniaturized and smart medical implants continues in all medical fields, including miniaturized heart pacemakers. These implants often come with a titanium (Ti) casing, which may have to be removed after several months or years and shall therefore not be completely overgrown by cells or scar tissue after implantation. Scar tissue is mainly formed by fibroblast cells and extracellular matrix proteins like collagen produced by them. Suppression of fibroblast growth at Ti surfaces could be achieved by 800 nm femtosecond laser-ablation creating self-organized sharp spikes with dimensions in the 10 μm-range which are superposed by fine sub-μm parallel ripples. On flat Ti control samples, the best results regarding suppression of cell growth were obtained on spike-structures which were additionally electrochemically anodized under acidic conditions. When Ti cylinders with a diameter of 8 mm (similar as the pacemakers) were placed upright in a culture of murine fibroblasts, a multi-layer cell growth up to a height of at least 1.5 mm occurred within 19–22 days. We have demonstrated that a laser-structured and anodized ring around the Ti cylinder surface is an effective way to create a barrier that murine fibroblasts were not able to overgrow within this time.
In this paper we report on the characterization by X-ray computed tomography of calcium phosphate (CaP) and polycaprolactone (PCL) coatings on Ti-6Al-4V alloy scaffolds used as a material for medical implants. The cylindrical scaffold has greater porosity of the inner part than the external part, thus, mimicking trabecular and cortical bone, respectively. The prismatic scaffolds have uniform porosity. Surface of the scaffolds was modified with calcium phosphate (CaP) and polycaprolactone (PCL) by dip-coating to improve biocompatibility and mechanical properties. Computed tomography performed with X-ray and synchrotron radiation revealed the defects of structure and morphology of CaP and PCL coatings showing small platelet-like and spider-web-like structures, respectively.