Glycan on titanium
"Sweet" coating for bone implants
Tatiana Matveeva, "Scientific Russia"
Scientists from the University of Macau and Nanjing University (China), in collaboration with the National Dental Center of Singapore, have invented a bioactive coating that can be chemically bonded to the surface of titanium – the metal from which bone implants are usually made – and is able to protect the bone from inflammation, EurekAlert ! portal reports.
Osteoporosis is a disease in which the bone tissue becomes less dense and very fragile. In addition to the fact that pathology affects the condition of bones, it also impairs the function of bone implants made of titanium. Since there is less bone tissue at the implantation site, implants can easily become loose, which often leads to inflammation.
A bioactive coating made of chemically modified glycan (sugar chains) can consistently "turn on" and "turn off" inflammation on bone implants. In conditions of osteoporosis, it first turns on "good inflammation", instructing human macrophages to release molecules that can activate bone cells and promote healing. When bone cells grow and function to a certain extent, they naturally secrete an enzyme called alkaline phosphatase to separate the chemically modified glycan from the titanium surface. This "sugar bullet" can kill macrophages after they have done their job.
The authors of the development note that the main advantage of this coating is the maximum increase in the capacity of a limited number of bone cells around implants in osteoporosis.
The development is described in detail in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (Wang et al., Switching On and Off Macrophages by a “Bridge‐Burning” Coating Improves Bone‐Implant Integration under Osteoporosis).
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