Enhanced antibacterial property and osteo-differentiation activity on plasma treated porous polyetheretherketone with hierarchical micro/nano-topography.

Implantable polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has great biomedical potential as hard tissue substitute in orthopedic application due to its outstanding mechanical properties and excellent biological stability. However, the poor osseointegration and bacteriostatic ability of implantable PEEK become the major barrier for its wide clinic application. In this study, a hierarchically micro/nano-topographic PEEK with specific functional groups (amino and COOH/COOR) has been fabricated using facile sulfonation combined with argon plasma treatment. The new developed hierarchically micro/nano-topographic PEEK have enhanced hydrophilicity, surface roughness, as well as the high ability of apatite-layer forming. Antibacterial assessment shows that as-treated samples exhibit better antibacterial activity. The cellular responses in osteoblast-like MG-63 cells culturing experiment reveal that the micro/nano-topography accompanied with specific functional groups improves the cell adhesion at the initial stage, further ameliorates proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of MG-63. This study proposes a promising approach to increase osteo-differentiation activity and bacteriostasis of PEEK via synergistic effects involving surface topologic structure and chemical modification, which shows great potential in developing advanced implantable materials.