Biological Characteristics of the MG-63 Human Osteosarcoma Cells on Composite Tantalum Carbide/ Amorphous Carbon Films
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Biological Characteristics of the MG-63 Human Osteosarcoma Cells on Composite Tantalum Carbide/ Amorphous Carbon Films Yin-Yu Chang1, Heng-Li Huang2, Ya-Chi Chen3, Jui-Ting Hsu2, Tzong-Ming Shieh4, Ming-Tzu Tsai5* 1 Department of Mechanical and Computer-Aided Engineering, National Formosa University, Yunlin, Taiwan, 2 School of Dentistry, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, 3 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Mingdao University, Changhua, Taiwan, 4 Department of Dental Hygiene, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, 5 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hungkuang University, Taichung, Taiwan Abstract Tantalum (Ta) is a promising metal for biomedical implants or implant coating for orthopedic and dental applications because of its excellent corrosion resistance, fracture toughness, and biocompatibility. This study synthesizes biocompatible tantalum carbide (TaC) and TaC/amorphous carbon (a-C) coatings with different carbon contents by using a twin-gun magnetron sputtering system to improve their biological properties and explore potential surgical implant or device applications. The carbon content in the deposited coatings was regulated by controlling the magnetron power ratio of the pure graphite and Ta cathodes. The deposited TaC and TaC/a-C coatings exhibited better cell viability of human osteosarcoma cell line MG-63 than the uncoated Ti and Ta-coated samples. Inverted optical and confocal imaging was used to demonstrate the cell adhesion, distribution, and proliferation of each sample at different time points during the whole culture period. The results show that the TaC/a-C coating, which contained two metastable phases (TaC and a-C), was more biocompatible with MG-63 cells compared to the pure Ta coating. This suggests that the TaC/a-C coatings exhibit a better biocompatible performance for MG-63 cells, and they may improve implant osseointegration in clinics. Citation: Chang Y-Y, Huang H-L, Chen Y-C, Hsu J-T, Shieh T-M, et al. (2014) Biological Characteristics of the MG-63 Human Osteosarcoma Cells on Composite Tantalum Carbide/Amorphous Carbon Films. PLoS ONE 9(4): e95590. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095590 Editor: Ali Al-Ahmad, University Hospital of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany Received November 28, 2013; Accepted March 28, 2014; Published April 23, 2014 Copyright: ß 2014 Chang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This work was partially funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan (Grant No. NSC 102-2221-E-150-006 and NSC 101-2314-B-039-022-MY3), and Taichung Veterans General Hospital/Hungkuang University Joint Research Program (TCVGH-HK1008008 and TCVGH-HK1028002). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: [email protected] Introduction surface of Ta metal, might play a key role in its biocompatibility. Tantalum oxides and TaN are also compatible with cardiac and Tantalum (Ta) is a promising metal for use in biomedical vascular devices. implants or orthopedic and dental implant coatings because of its An amorphous carbon (a-C) composite—because of its superior excellent corrosion resistance, fracture toughness, and biocompat- mechanochemical properties such as low friction coefficient, high ibility [1–3]. Ta metal with its porous structure similar to that of hardness, and chemical inertness—is commonly used as a surface spongious bone has been used in various orthopedic implants [4– coating in medical devices [19]. Because of its excellent 7]. Studies [3,8,9] have shown that Ta metal is appropriate for biocompatibility, a-C has been applied to the coatings of hip osteogenesis in animal implantation tests, and in vivo studies have prostheses, orthopedic implants, vascular stents, and artificial heart proven it suitable for cell adhesion, proliferation, and differenti- valves [13,20,21]. A recent study showed that a-C coating on ation [10–12]. Ta has also been used to fabricate stents and artificial hip joints reduced the wear debris [20]. Several in vitro artificial heart valves for cardiac and vascular devices because of its studies have also demonstrated that a-C coatings improved the high corrosion resistance and radio-opacity properties [13,14]. adhesion and growth of osteoblasts, reduced platelet attachment, The biocompatibility of Ta have been identified and widely and inhibited activation [22,23]. applied to various biomedical materials and devices. In this study, TaC and TaC/a-C coatings with various carbon Due to its biocompatibility, various Ta composites have been contents were synthesized using pulsed unbalanced magnetron examined to improve physicochemical properties and interactions sputtering in an argon (Ar) atmosphere, and were deposited onto with cells in vitro and in vivo. Several Ta composites exhibit glass cover slips. The cell viability of human osteosarcoma cell line distinct material characteristics depending on the surface modifi- MG-63 was evaluated. To observe and record the attachment and cation technique used and the chemical bonding structures morphology of living cells in real-time using inverted optical and [3,6,15–18]. Ta nitride (TaN) exhibits relatively high hardness, fluorescent confocal microscopy during the culture period, a glass thermal stability, and superior corrosion resistance. It also cover slip was used as a substrate of Ta, TaC, and TaC/a-C produces extremely low friction against steel and alumina, and coatings. Besides, the titanium (Ti) metal has been widely and provides enhanced blood compatibility compared with TiN and clinically applied to implant materials and used as a substrate of Ta. A natural thin layer of tantalum oxide, which exists on the various coatings in most cases, an uncoated Ti specimen with PLOS ONE | www.plosone.org 1 April 2014 | Volume 9 | Issue 4 | e95590 Biocompatibility of MG-63 Cell on Tantalum Carbide Films cultured cells was regarded as a control group for the comparison measure the contact angles (FTA-125, First Ten Angstroms, with these coatings in this study. Portsmouth, VA, USA). Each contact angle reported herein is the mean of at least 10 independent measurements (n = 10 at least). Experimental Details 3.Cultivation of human osteosarcoma cell line MG-63 1.Sample preparation and characterization Human MG-63 osteoblast-like cells were purchased from Ta, TaC, and composite TaC/a-C coatings were deposited Bioresource Collection and Research Center (product No. BCRC onto glass slides using unbalanced magnetron sputtering in an Ar 60279, passage 101, BCRC, Hsinchu City, Taiwan). In this study, atmosphere. High purity Ta and graphite targets (99.99 at.%) MG-63 cells were cultured in DMEM (Gibco, Carlsbad, CA) were arranged in conjunction to deposit the composite coatings. medium with 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco) and 1% penicillin Each target had a diameter of 50 mm and was tilted 45u relative to streptomycin (Gibco). Half medium was replaced every 2–3 days. the substrate. The target and substrate were separated by 60 mm, After cells reached almost 90% confluences, cells were trypsinized and the samples were placed on a rotational substrate holder for and centrifuged as cell pellet. Cell pellets were resuspended in fresh deposition. The base pressure before deposition was less than 23 medium for subculture. MG-63 cells at passages 103–105 were 2610 Pa. Before deposition, the substrates were etched for used in this study. 20 min at a substrate bias potential of 2800 V in Ar plasma. The Ta, TaC, and composite TaC/a-C coatings were deposited by 4.Biocompatibility tests of MG-63 cells driving the cathodes in pulsed DC mode at a frequency of 20 kHz Biocompatibility was evaluated by assessing the cell viability of and a duty of 80% using Advanced Energy MDX power supplies the MG-63 cells cultured onto the uncoated Ti, Ta-, TaC-, and with SPARCLE pulse units. To enhance film adhesion, Ta ion TaC/a-C-coated samples. Cell viability was measured by detect- bombardment (Ta cathode power = 50 W; bias voltage = 2600 V) ing the intracellular purple formazan resulting from the yellow was applied before deposition. After etching, the Ta coating was tetrazolium MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazolyl-2) -2, 5-diphenylte- deposited, with the cathode power of the Ta target set to 200 W and trazolium bromide). MG-63 cells were seeded onto each specimen a bias voltage of 240 V. Using a fixed Ar flow rate of 75 sccm, the at a density of 5,000 cells/cm2 and incubated at 37 Cin5%CO chamber was maintained a deposition pressure of 0.6 Pa. To u 2 for 5 days. An MTT (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) was added to produce TaC and composite TaC/a-C that contained various the cultured cells and incubated for an additional 4 h. The purple carbon contents, the Ta cathode power was maintained at 20 W formazan was eluted using 2 mL isopropanol-HCl (Sigma- while the graphite cathode power was set to 150 W or 200 W. A Ta Aldrich). The absorbance of the purple formazan was quantified layer was deposited as an interlayer (approximately 80 nm). A as the optical density (OD) at 570 nm measured using a substrate bias voltage of 240 V was used. The sample temperature SpectraMax spectrophotometer (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, during deposition was measured using a thermocouple located near CA, USA) with SoftMax Pro 5.2 241 software (Molecular the sample (range 100625uC). The coating thickness was main- Devices). The OD of formazan reflects the level of cell metabolic tained at 0.3–0.6 mm by using a deposition time of 20 min. activity. High OD values indicate correspondingly high cell The composition and chemical-binding characteristics of the viability.