In Vitro Bioactivity and Bacteriostasis Effect of Thermally Treated and UV-Light Irradiated TiO2 Ceramics

Biomaterials used in bone repair must satisfy certain criteria in order to perform without undesirable immunological response. They must be biocompatible and should inhibit bacteria adhesion on the surface, that could led to strong inflammatory process and implant failure. Our study reveals a synergistic effect on bioactivity and bacteriostasis effect of the TiO2 ceramics with different surface properties and provides insight into the design of better biomedical implant surfaces. The results show that UV light irradiation has great impact on hidrophilicity of TiO2 ceramics, but little effect on the sample bacteriostatic effect and bioactivity. TiO2 ceramic samples showed no or very low bacterial adhesion. Nevertheless, in vitro bioactivity showed TiO2 ceramic that was thermally treated at lower temperature. Thus for bone repair it’s suggested to use TiO2 ceramic sintered at lower temperature in order to provide bioactivity with bacterostatic effect and use UV-light irradiation to improve hidrophilicity.