Degradation, bioactivity, and cytocompatibility of diopside, akermanite, and bredigite ceramics

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of three bioceramics in the CaO-SiO2-MgO systems with different composition on the in vitro degradation, bioactivity, and cytocompatibility. The degradation was evaluated through the activation energy of Si ion release from ceramics and the weight loss of the ceramics in Tris-HCl buffers. The in vitro bioactivity of the ceramics was investigated by analysis of apatite-formation ability in the simulated body fluid (SBF). The cytocompatibility was evaluated through osteoblast morphology and proliferation. The results showed that the activation energy of Si ion release increased and the degradation decreased from bredigite to diopside ceramics with the increase of Mg content, and the apatite-formation ability in SBF decreased. The Ca, Si, and Mg containing ionic products from three ceramics could stimulate cell proliferation at lower concentration, and inhibit cell proliferation with the increase of ion concentrations. Furthermore, osteoblasts could adhere, spread, and proliferate on three ceramic disks, and cell proliferation on diopside was more obvious than that on other two ceramic disks. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.