Strontium oxide doped quaternary glasses: effect on structure, degradation and cytocompatibility.

This preliminary study focuses on the effect of adding SrO to a Ti-containing quaternary phosphate glass system denoted by P(2)O(5)-Na(2)O-CaO-TiO(2). The following four different glass compositions were manufactured: 0.5P(2)O(5)-0.17Na(2)O-0.03TiO(2)-(0.3-x)CaO-xSrO where x = 0, 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05. Structural characterisation revealed glass transition temperatures in the range 427-437 degrees C and the presence of sodium calcium phosphate as the dominant phase in all the glasses. Degradation and ion release studies conducted over a 15-day period revealed that the Sr-containing glasses showed significantly higher degradation and ion release rates than the Sr-free glass. Cytocompatibility studies performed over a 7-day period using MG63 cells showed that the addition of 5 mol% SrO yielded glasses with cell viability nearly equivalent to that observed for quaternary TiO(2) glasses.