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Development of Co-Cr-Mo-xTi alloys by micro-plasma-based 3D printing for knee implant applications and its biocompatibility assessment

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Abstract

It reports development of Co-Cr-Mo-xTi alloys as biomaterial by μ-plasma-based 3D-printing for knee implant applications and its in-vitro biocompatibility assessment using cell viability, metallic ion release, and corrosion behavior analysis. HeLa cells treated with 16.6, 33.3, 66.6, and 106.6 µl concentration of the prepared media were used to study cell viability for 24, 48, and 72h incubation duration. Metallic ion release was assessed in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) solution of 4.0, 5.5, and 7.5 pH values using 1, 3, and 7week immersion durations. Corrosion rate was assessed in 7.4 pH PBS solution at 37 °C. Overall average cell viability of Co-Cr-Mo-2Ti, Co-Cr-Mo-4Ti, and Co-Cr-Mo-6Ti alloys was found to be 92%, 95%, and 85%, respectively. Co-Cr-Mo-xTi alloys did not have any harmful effects on the appearance of HeLa cells. The overall averaged released amounts of Co, Cr, Mo, and Ti ions by Co-Cr-Mo-xTi alloys are 126, 41, 11, and 9 parts per billion, respectively. Corrosion behavior of Co-Cr-Mo-xTi alloys showed passive plateau up to 0.5 V potential without causing any pitting. Co-Cr-Mo-4Ti alloy has minimum values of all important parameters of corrosion and shows formation of TiO2 passive oxide layer imparting better corrosion resistance than Co-Cr-Mo alloy. The addition of Ti to Co-Cr-Mo alloy is advantageous due to the formation of non-cytotoxic, cell growth activating, and metallic ion release minimizing intermetallic CoTi2 phase. This study identifies Co-Cr-Mo-4Ti alloy as better biocompatible biomaterial that could be safely used as knee implant material owing to its better cell viability, metallic ion release, and corrosion behavior.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Additive and Micromanufacturing Lab (AMAL) of Mechanical Engineering, Labs of Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering, and other labs of IIT Indore for providing the research facilities to conduct the presented work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Pankaj Kumar & Neelesh Kumar Jain

  2. Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Industrial Management, College of Engineering, Pune, India

    Mayur S. Sawant

  3. School of Medicine, University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, USA

    Anshu Kumari

  4. Department of Biosciences and Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Sharad Gupta

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  1. Pankaj Kumar
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  3. Neelesh Kumar Jain
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Pankaj Kumar and Dr. Mayur S Sawant. Dr. Anshu Kumari and Dr. Sharad Gupta helped in biocompatibility analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Pankaj Kumar and Prof. Neelesh Kumar Jain, and Dr. Sharad Gupta commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Neelesh Kumar Jain.

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Research Highlights

• Develop of better knee implant material by 2/4/6 wt.% of Ti to Co-Cr-Mo alloy by 3D printing

• Developed alloys did not have harmful effects on HeLa cells

• Formation of CoTi2 phase improved viability and growth of cells, reduced metallic ions release

• Released metallic ions are within physiological constraint of trace components

• Co-Cr-Mo-4Ti found better biocompatible alloy due to its superior cell viability and corrosion resistance.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 4 presents the aspect ratio computed as ratio of measured deposition width to deposition height and observed deposition quality in terms of continuous and consistent deposition (CCD) and non-uniform deposition (NUD) along with parametric combinations for 27 main experiments [14].

Table 4 Results of main experiments for 27 parametric combinations used in it
Full size table

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Kumar, P., Sawant, M.S., Jain, N.K. et al. Development of Co-Cr-Mo-xTi alloys by micro-plasma-based 3D printing for knee implant applications and its biocompatibility assessment. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 126, 2445–2459 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11277-5

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