Plasma and chemical treatments of zirconia surface for cell response improvement: A comparative study

Abstract

Zirconia is an inert implantable biomaterial with poor or null cell response. To enhance this condition of inertness, surface modification can be used to induce bioactivity improving the implant-tissue interaction. For bioactivation, a zirconia surface was modified by means of two treatments, one with argon plasma and the other with calcium and phosphate ions in addition to plasma. In vitro tests were performed to determine cell response on both surfaces and on a control. The results showed similar evidence of bioactivation in the treated samples. The novelty of this paper lies in the cellular response studies carried out in zirconia treated surfaces with two different bioactivation processes and its comparative evaluation, including cell viability, morphology and spreading. To our knowledge, no prior studies have reported these experiments, which may have many applications in the field of biomaterials.