Resorption Mechanism of Hydroxyapatite and β-Tricalcium Phosphate Coating Layer

Beta-tricalcium phosphate(β-TCP) coating layer is known to be resorbed much faster than hydroxyapatite(HA), however, there has been no report to explain the exact reason of these results. Eighty titanium discs, coated with HA(n=40) or β-TCP(n=40) by dip and spin coating method, were divided into 2 subgroups respectively; Dissolution(D, n=20) and osteoclast culture(C, n=20). The coated discs in D group were immersed in the cell culture media for 5 days, whereas, in C group, osteoclasts were seeded on the specimens and cultured for 5 days. After simple dissolution test, β-TCP coating layer showed much more cracks and denudation as compared to HA. In osteoclast culture group, mean area fraction of resorption pits in HA-C group was 11.62%, which was significantly higher than that of 0.73% in β-TCP-C group(p=0.001). In conclusion, the resorption mechanisms of HA and β-TCP coating layers were different each other in vitro study. The coated β-TCP was degraded mainly by dissolution and separation from implant, on the other hand, the HA coating layer was resorbed by osteoclastic activity.