Product Code: ICAL06_1505

Laser-Induced Wettability Characteristics Modification and the Effect Thereof on Cell Response on a Titanium Alloy
Authors:
Jonathan Lawrence, Loughborough University; Leicestershire Great Britain
Liang Hao, Loughborough University; Leicestershire Great Britain
Presented at ICALEO 2006

It was found that interaction of a Nd:YAG laser beam with the Ti6Al4V alloy resulted in the wettability characteristics of the bio-metal improving. Such improvements in the wettability characteristics of the Ti6Al4V alloy were found to be due to: an increase in the surface roughness; and increase in the surface oxygen content and an increase in the polar component of the surface energy. From in vitro osteoblast cell response tests it was ascertained that cell adhesion and proliferation on the Nd:YAG laser treated Ti6Al4V alloy samples was considerably greater than on the untreated samples. By isolating the effects of surface roughness it was possible to confirm or refute the existence of a correlation between wettability characteristics and osteoblast cell bioactivity for the Nd:YAG laser treated Ti6Al4V alloy. The findings indicate that wettability characteristics (especially the surface oxygen content and the polar component of the surface energy) play an important role in promoting cell proliferation, particularly when surface roughness was simultaneously increased. Thus it was possible to conclude that the wettability characteristics of the Nd:YAG laser treated Ti6Al4V alloy were correlated to osteoblast cell bioactivity.