Physical vapour deposition of zirconia on titanium: fabrication, characterization and interaction with human osteoblast cells.

The physical vapor deposition of zirconia was used to prepare two new titanium-based surfaces M1 and M2 with a different layer thickness. These novel surfaces were characterized for chemistry, topography and morphology by surface and solid state techniques. Primary osteoblast cells were used for in vitro studies. DAPI assay was applied for cell proliferation, while for bone sialoprotein (BSP), osteonectin and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) expression immunohistochemical analyses were employed. Materials M1 and M2 affected cell proliferation accordingly to their surface roughness with their impact on cell number being between the impact of two rough (Ticer, SS) and two smooth surfaces (Ti cp and Cercon). Different influence of the investigated materials on the osteoblastic production of BSP (all materials similar impact), ON (Cercon-higher; SS-lower for others) and TGF-β (Cercon different) was found.