Mechanical property, degradation rate, and bone cell growth of chitosan coated titanium influenced by degree of deacetylation of chitosan.

Chitosan has shown promise as a coating for dental/craniofacial and orthopaedic implants. However, the effects of degree of deacetylation (DDA) of chitosan on coating bond strength, degradation, and biological performance is not known. The aim of this project was to evaluate bonding, degradation, and bone cell growth on titanium coated with chitosans of different DDA and from different manufacturers. Three different chitosans, 80.6%, 81.7%, and 92.3% DDA were covalently bonded to titanium coupons via silane-glutaraldehyde molecules. Bond strengths were evaluated in mechanical tensile tests, and degradation, over 5 weeks, was conducted in cell culture medium with and without 100 microg/mL lysozyme. Cytocompatibility was evaluated for 10 days using UMR 106 osteoblastic cells. Results showed that mean chitosan coating bond strengths ranged from 2.2-3.8 MPa, and that there was minimal affect of DDA on coating bond strengths. The coatings exhibited little dissolution over 5 weeks in medium with or without lysozyme. However, the molecular weight (MW) of the chitosan coatings remaining on the titanium samples after 5 weeks decreased by 69-85% with the higher DDA chitosan coatings exhibiting less percent change in MW than the lower DDA materials. The growth of the UMR 106 osteoblast cells on the 81.7% DDA chitosan coating was lower on days 3 and 5, as compared with the other two coatings, but by day 10, there were no differences in growth among three coatings or to the uncoated titanium controls. Differences in growth were attributed to differences in manufacturer source material, though all coatings were judged to be osteocompatible in vitro. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.