Control of proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts on apatite-coated poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel as an artificial articular cartilage material

One of the key challenges in employing biomaterials is determining how to fix them into the surrounding tissue. To enhance the interaction with surrounding bone, amorphous hydroxyapatite (HA) was coated onto the surface of the bio-inert poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel (PVA-H), as an artificial cartilage material, by a pulsed laser deposition technique. Next we examined the binding effects of the HA thin film (300 nm thick) to the underlying bone using osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. A mouse osteoblast cell line, MC3T3E1, was cultured on the HA-coated and noncoated PVA-H with a water content of 33% or 53% for 3 weeks. Cell proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and levels of osteocalcin were evaluated for biocompatibility and differentiation. HA coating enhanced the cell proliferation, the ALP activity, and the levels of osteocalcin on both low and high water-content PVA-Hs. The cell growth rates on the PVA-H were lower than on tissue culture dishes even after the HA coating was added; however, osteoblastic differentiation was highly promoted by the HA coating on low water content PVA-H. These results suggested that the HA coating on the PVA-H enhanced the affinity between the bone and the PVA-H as an artificial cartilage material in surface replacement arthroplasty. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2010