BioMin - Funktionalisierte Mineraloberflächen: Sorptionsmechanismen von wachstumsstimulierenden Proteinen an Oberflächen von Knochenersatzwerkstoffen auf Calciumphosphatbasis

The manufactured samples of amorphous and recrystallized bioactive glass 45S5 were sterilized for further investigations especially for the in vivo testing. Two common sterilization procedures for solid bodies, steam sterilization and hot air sterilization, were tested. After the steam sterilization the surface topography and the chemical content at the surface of the samples changed. This effect could not be observed after hot air sterilization. Hence, hot air sterilization procedure was chosento sterilize the samples. We developed a manufacturing process to produce porous -tricalcium phosphate specimens. NH4HCO3 was succesfully used to create pores inside the samples. The advantage of this material is that it decomposes at low temperature (60 °C) and so only can affect the samples a short temperature range from room temperature up to 60 °C. Hence, no cracks where detected at the surface and the core of the samples. Different kind of pore sizes and amount of porosity was created in the ceramic parts by using this porosifying agent. The bounding ability of the BMP-2 (Bone Morphogenic Protein) of amorphous and recrystallized bioactive glass was characterized by two different concentrations of the BMP-2 in the immersion fluid. The results show that a doubling of the concentration of the BMP-2 in the immersion fluid resulted in the two-fold amount of BMP-2 at the surface of the amorphous and the recrystallized bioactive glass. However, the release of the BMP-2 showed a difference with respect to these two materials. Both materials show an initial burst phase in the release of the bone morphogenetic protein from the surface of about two days followed by a sustained release. During the initial burst phase more BMP-2 was released from the recrystallized surface compared to amorphous surface of the bioactive glass. As experimental results on the BMP-2 activity on mineral surfaces indicate that a non-covalent attachment to an unpolar surface functionalization yields the best coverage, the relevant structural characteristics of BMP-2 under osteogenic conditions were studied by molecular dynamics simulations with a biological force field. An analysis of the local flexibility of BMP monomers and dimers in solution and on a non-polar functionalization revealed major structure changes at the N-terminus, close to the -helix, and around the disulfide bridge in the dimer. As all secondary structure elements remained intact in the bonded dimer, the results indicate that the flexible areas in-between may facilitate the docking of BMP-2 to surfaces, but are not involved in sterically driven osteogenic activity. Electronic structure calculations suggest alkylphosphonic acids and nucleotides as suitable surface func¬tio¬nalizations, which bind to the mineral surface with the polar part and expose an unpolar part to attach. The amorphous and recrystallized bioactive glass coated and not coated with BMP, respectively, were implanted in New Zealand white rabbits for four different implantation times (7, 28, 84, 168 days). 6 implants were used for one kind of material and implantation time, i. e. overall 96 cylindrical implants (3.96 mm diameter, 8.1 mm height) have been inserted. At present, the evaluations of specimens prior implantation and at 7 days were completed. Due to the implantation procedure a gap healing was observed, leading to a delay in bone formation in comparison to former studies in the same animal model with bioactive implants. Up to 7 days after implantation no bone-bonding was observed in any of the specimens. All of the materials (amorphous, crystalline each with and without BMP-coating) displayed no obvious changes in surface density and structure up to now indicating a lower surface reactivity as known from 45S5 bioactive glass. At 7 days the highest expression of an early marker, which indicates that the bone matrix is activated, was observed at the amorphous coated implants. Therefore, stimulation in bone formation around the BMP-coated implants is possible. Subsequently, we will histologically analyze the samples of longer implantation times to confirm this observation.