Finite element analysis of a low modulus Ti-20Zr-3Mo-3Sn alloy designed to reduce the stress shielding effect of a hip prosthesis.

After total hip arthroplasty, the stress shielding effect can occur due to the difference of stiffness between the metallic alloy of the stems and the host bone, which may cause a proximal bone loss. To overcome this problem, a low-modulus metastable ß Ti-20Zr-3Mo-3Sn alloy composition has recently been designed to be potentially used for the cementless femoral hip stems. After having verified experimentally that the ß alloy has a low modulus of around 50 GPa, a finite element analysis was performed on a Ti-20Zr-3Mo-3Sn alloy hip prosthesis model to evaluate the influence of a reduced modulus on stress shielding and stress fields in both stem and bone compared with the medical grade Ti-6Al-4V alloy whose elastic modulus reached 110 GPa. Our results show that the Ti-20Zr-3Mo-3Sn stem with low elastic modulus can effectively reduce the total stress shielding by 45.5% compared to the common Ti-6Al-4V prosthesis. Moreover, it is highlighted that the material elasticity affects the stress distribution in the implant, especially near the bone-stem interfaces.

Finite element analysis of the mechanical performance of self-expanding endovascular stents made with new nickel-free superelastic ß-titanium alloys.

New Ni-free superelastic ß-titanium alloys from the Ti-Zr-Nb-Sn system have been designed in this study to replace the NiTi alloy currently used for self-expanding endovascular stents. The simulation results, carried out by finite element analysis (FEA) on two ß-type Ti-Zr-Nb-Sn alloys using a commonly used superelastic constitutive model, were in good agreement with the experimental uniaxial tension data. An ad-hoc self-expanding coronary stent was specifically designed for the present study. To assess the mechanical performance of the endovascular stents, a FEA framework of the stent deployed in the arterial system was established, and a simply cyclic bending loading was proposed. Six comparative simulations of three superelastic materials (including NiTi for comparison) and two arterial configurations were successfully conducted. The mechanical behaviours of the stents were analysed through stress localization, the increase in artery diameter, contact results, and distributions of mean and alternating strain. The simulation results show that the Ti-22Zr-11Nb-2Sn (at. %) alloy composition for the stent produces the largest contact area (9.92 mm2) and radial contact force (49.5 mN) on the inner surface of the plaque and a higher increase in the stenotic artery diameter (70 %) after three vascular bending cycles. Furthermore, the Ti-22Zr-11Nb-2Sn stent exhibited sufficient crimping capacity and reliable mechanical performance during deployment and cyclic bending, which could make it a suitable choice for self-expanding coronary stents. In this work, the implementation of finite element analysis has thus made it possible to propose a solid basis for the mechanical evaluation of these stents fabricated in new Ni-free superelastic ß-Ti alloys.

Endothelial Cell Responses to a Highly Deformable Titanium Alloy Designed for Vascular Stent Applications.

Titanium alloys are widely used for biomedical applications due to their good biocompatibility. Nevertheless, they cannot be used for balloon expandable stents due to a lack of ductility compared to cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr) alloys and stainless steels. In this study, a new highly deformable Ti-16Nb-8Mo alloy was designed for such an application. However, the biological performance of a stent material is strongly influenced by the effect exerted on the behavior of endothelial cells. Therefore, the cellular responses of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), including morphological characteristics, cell viability and proliferation, and functional markers expression, were investigated to evaluate the biocompatibility of the alloy in the present study. The in vitro results demonstrated the suitability of this alloy for use as endovascular stents.

Enhancement of the biocompatibility by surface nitriding of a low-modulus titanium alloy for dental implant applications.

To enhance their longevity, dental implants must be highly biocompatible and must have a low elastic modulus close to that of the bone. They must also possess a high superficial hardness and a high corrosion resistance. For these reasons, a recently developed low-modulus Ti-27Nb alloy with nontoxic elements was treated by gas nitriding at high temperature in this study. A very thin nitrided layer of 0.5 µm in thickness followed by an enriched nitrogen zone was observed. Consequently, a very high hardness evaluated at about 1800 HV was obtained in surface, which represents an increase of 4-5 times the hardness of the non-nitrided alloy. This superficial hardness was experimentally observed to decrease up to 800 nm in depth from the surface to the core. The low modulus of Ti-27Nb (evaluated at 55 GPa, which is twice lower than the commercially pure titanium) was not affected by the surface nitriding treatment. A better corrosion resistance was observed and a significant decrease in ion release rates for the nitrided alloy (ion release of 1.41 ng/cm2 compared to the 163.58 ng/cm2 obtained for the commercially pure titanium at pH = 7.48 in artificial Carter-Brugirard saliva). The cytocompatibility was not compromised and the cell viability performed on human osteoblasts, fibroblastic cells, and epithelial cells was enhanced on the nitrided surface in comparison with the non-nitrided surface. These combined properties make the nitrided Ti-27Nb alloy a good candidate for dental implant applications. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B: 1483-1490, 2019.

Nitride coating enhances endothelialization on biomedical NiTi shape memory alloy.

Surface nitriding was demonstrated to be an effective process for improving the biocompatibility of implantable devices. In this study, we investigated the benefits of nitriding the NiTi shape memory alloy for vascular stent applications. Results from cell experiments indicated that, compared to untreated NiTi, a superficial gas nitriding treatment enhanced the adhesion of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), cell spreading and proliferation. This investigation provides data to demonstrate the possibility of improving the rate of endothelialization on NiTi by means of nitride coating.

Surface Characterization, Corrosion Resistance and in Vitro Biocompatibility of a New Ti-Hf-Mo-Sn Alloy.

A new superelastic Ti-23Hf-3Mo-4Sn biomedical alloy displaying a particularly large recovery strain was synthesized and characterized in this study. Its native passive film is very thick (18 nm) and contains very protective TiO2, Ti2O3, HfO2, MoO2, and SnO2 oxides (XPS analysis). This alloy revealed nobler electrochemical behavior, more favorable values of the corrosion parameters and open circuit potentials in simulated body fluid in comparison with commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) and Ti-6Al-4V alloy taken as reference biomaterials in this study. This is due to the favorable influence of the alloying elements Hf, Sn, Mo, which enhance the protective properties of the native passive film on alloy surface. Impedance spectra showed a passive film with two layers, an inner, capacitive, barrier, dense layer and an outer, less insulating, porous layer that confer both high corrosion resistance and bioactivity to the alloy. In vitro tests were carried out in order to evaluate the response of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) to Ti-23Hf-3Mo-4Sn alloy in terms of cell viability, cell proliferation, phenotypic marker expression and nitric oxide release. The results indicate a similar level of cytocompatibility with HUVEC cells cultured on Ti-23Hf-3Mo-4Sn substrate and those cultured on the conventional CP-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V metallic materials.

Biological Behaviour and Enhanced Anticorrosive Performance of the Nitrided Superelastic Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-0.5N Alloy.

The influence of gas nitriding surface treatment on the superelastic Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-0.5N alloy was evaluated. A thorough characterization of bare and nitrided Ti-based alloy and pure Ti was performed in terms of surface film composition and morphology, electrochemical behaviour, and short term osteoblast response. XPS analysis showed that the nitriding treatment strongly influenced the composition (nitrides and oxynitrides) and surface properties both of the substrate and of the bulk alloy. SEM images revealed that the nitrided surface appears as a similar dotted pattern caused by the formation of N-rich domains coexisting with less nitrided domains, while before treatment only topographical features could be observed. All the electrochemical results confirmed the high chemical stability of the nitride and oxynitride coating and the superiority of the applied treatment. The values of the corrosion parameters ascertained the excellent corrosion resistance of the coated alloy in the real functional conditions from the human body. Cell culture experiments with MG63 osteoblasts demonstrated that the studied biomaterials do not elicit any toxic effects and support cell adhesion and enhanced cell proliferation. Altogether, these data indicate that the nitrided Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-0.5N alloy is the most suitable substrate for application in bone implantology.

In vitro performance assessment of new beta Ti-Mo-Nb alloy compositions.

New ß-titanium based alloys with low Young's modulus are currently required for the next generation of metallic implant materials to ensure good mechanical compatibility with bone. Several of these are representatives of the ternary Ti-Mo-Nb system. The aim of this paper is to assess the in vitro biological performance of five new low modulus alloy compositions, namely Ti12Mo, Ti4Mo32Nb, Ti6Mo24Nb, Ti8Mo16Nb and Ti10Mo8Nb. Commercially pure titanium (cpTi) was used as a reference material. Comparative studies of cell activity exhibited by MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts over short- and long-term culture periods demonstrated that these newly-developed metallic substrates exhibited an increased biocompatibility in terms of osteoblast proliferation, collagen production and extracellular matrix mineralization. Furthermore, all analyzed biomaterials elicited an almost identical cell response. Considering that macrophages play a pivotal role in bone remodeling, the behavior of a monocyte-macrophage cell line, RAW 264.7, was also investigated showing a slightly lower inflammatory response to Ti-Mo-Nb biomaterials as compared with cpTi. Thus, the biological performances together with the superior mechanical properties recommend these alloys for bone implant applications.

In vitro bio-functional performances of the novel superelastic beta-type Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-0.5N alloy.

The materials used for internal fracture fixations and joint replacements are mainly made of metals which still face problems ranging from higher rigidity than that of natural bone to leaching cytotoxic metallic ions. Beta (ß)-type titanium alloys with low elastic modulus made from non-toxic and non-allergenic elements are desirable to reduce stress shielding effect and enhance bone remodeling. In this work, a new ß-type Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-0.5N alloy with a Young's modulus of approximately 50 GPa was designed and characterized. The behavior of MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts on the new alloy, including adhesion, proliferation and differentiation, was evaluated by examining the cytoskeleton, focal adhesion formation, metabolic activity and extracellular matrix mineralization. Results indicated that the pre-osteoblast cells exhibited a similar degree of attachment and growth on Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-0.5N and Ti-6Al-4V. However, the novel alloy proved to be significantly more efficient in sustaining mineralized matrix deposition upon osteogenic induction of the cells than Ti-6Al-4V control. Further, the analysis of RAW 264.7 macrophages cytokine gene and protein expression indicated no significant inflammatory response. Collectively, these findings suggest that the Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-0.5N alloy, which has an increased mechanical biocompatibility with bone, allows a better osteogenic differentiation of osteoblast precursor cells than Ti-6Al-4V and holds great potential for future clinical prosthetic applications.

Osteoblast cell behavior on the new beta-type Ti-25Ta-25Nb alloy.

Among metallic materials used as bone substitutes, ß titanium alloys gain an increasing importance because of their low modulus, high corrosion resistance and good biocompatibility. In this work, an investigation of the in vitro cytocompatibility of a recently new developed ß-type Ti-25Ta-25Nb alloy was carried out by evaluating the behavior of human osteoblasts. The metallic Ti-6Al-4V biomaterial, which is one of representative α+ß type titanium alloys for biomedical applications, and Tissue Culture Polystyrene (TCPS), were also investigated as reference Ti-based material and control substrate, respectively. Both metallic surfaces were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The cellular response was quantified by assessments of viability, cell attachment and spreading, cell morphology, production and extracellular organization of fibronectin and cell proliferation. Polished surfaces from both materials having an equiaxed grain microstructure and nanometre scale surface roughness elicited an essentially identical osteoblast response in terms of all analyzed cellular parameters. Thus, on both surfaces the cells displayed high survival rates, good cell adhesion and spreading, a dense and randomly dispersed fibronectin matrix and increasing cell proliferation rates over the incubation time. Furhermore, the enhanced biological performance of Ti-25Ta-25Nb was highly supported by the results obtained in comparison with TCPS. These findings, together with previously shown superelastic behavior, low Young's modulus and high corrosion resistance, recommend Ti-25Ta-25Nb as good candidate for applications in bone implantology.

Corrosion behaviour of ß-Ti20Mo alloy in artificial saliva.

To evaluate the potential of ß-Ti20Mo alloy as a dental material, we tested its corrosion behaviour in artificial saliva in comparison to that of cp-Ti. Open-circuit potential (E(OC)), potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used as electrochemical methods to characterize the corrosion behaviour of Ti20Mo alloy and cp-Ti, respectively. Corrosion current and passive current densities obtained from the polarization curves showed low values indicating a typical passive behaviour for Ti20Mo alloy. The EIS technique enabled us to study the nature of the passive film formed on the binary Ti20Mo alloy at various imposed potentials. The Bode phase spectra obtained for Ti20Mo alloy in artificial saliva exhibited two-time constants at higher potential (0.5 V, 1.0 V), indicating a two-layer structure. According to our experimental measurements, Ti20Mo alloy appears to possess superior corrosion resistance to that of cp-Ti in artificial saliva.

Comparative corrosion study of Ti-Ta alloys for dental applications.

Besides other important material features, the corrosion parameters and corrosion products are responsible for limiting the biocompatibility of metallic materials, and can produce undesirable reactions in implant-adjacent and/or more distant tissues. Titanium and some of its alloys are known as being the most biocompatible metallic materials due to their high strength, low modulus, high corrosion resistance in biological media, etc. More recently, Ti-Ta alloys have been developed, and these are expected to become more promising candidates for biomedical and dental applications than commercially pure Ti, Ti-6Al-4V or Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy. The corrosion behavior of the studied Ti-Ta alloys with Ta contents of 30, 40, 50 and 60 wt.% together with the currently used Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy were investigated for dental applications. All alloys were tested by open-circuit potential measurement, linear polarization, potentiodynamic polarization, coulometric zone analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy performed in artificial saliva with different pH, acid lactic and fluoride contents. The passive behavior for all the titanium alloys is observed for artificial saliva, acidified saliva (9.8 gl(-1) lactic acid, pH 2.5) and for fluoridated saliva (1.0 gl(-1) F(-), pH 8). A decrease in corrosion resistance and less protective passive oxide films are observed for all titanium alloys in fluoridated acidified saliva (9.8 gl(-1) lactic acid, 1.0 gl(-1) F(-), pH 2.5) in regard to other electrochemical media used within this work. It is worthy of note that the most important decrease was found for Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy. These conclusions are confirmed by all the electrochemical tests undertaken. However, the results confirm that the corrosion resistance of the studied Ti-Ta alloys in all saliva is better or similar to that of Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy, suggesting that the Ti-Ta alloys have potential for dental applications.