Research Article
In Vitro Evaluation of Bioactivity of Chemically Deposited
Hydroxyapatite on Polyether Ether Ketone
D. Almasi,
1,2
S. Izman,
1
M. Sadeghi,
3
N. Iqbal,
2
F. Roozbahani,
4
G. Krishnamurithy,
5,6
T. Kamarul,
6
and M. R. Abdul Kadir
2
1
Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
2
Medical Devices & Technology Group (MEDITEG), Faculty of Bioscience and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
3
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
4
Faculty of Bioscience and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
5
Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, Sherrington Building, Liverpool L69 3GE, UK
6
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, NOCERAL, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Correspondence should be addressed to M. R. Abdul Kadir; raiq@biomedical.utm.my
Received 30 September 2014; Revised 16 January 2015; Accepted 28 January 2015
Academic Editor: Bruce Milthorpe
Copyright © 2015 D. Almasi et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is considered the best alternative material for titanium for spinal fusion cage implants due to its
low elasticity modulus and radiolucent property. he main problem of PEEK is its bioinert properties. Coating with hydroxyapatite
(HA) showed very good improvement in bioactivity of the PEEK implants. However the existing methods for deposition of HA
have some disadvantages and damage the PEEK substrate. In our previous study a new method for deposition of HA on PEEK
was presented. In this study cell proliferation of mesenchymal stem cell and apatite formation in simulated body luid (SBF) tests
were conducted to probe the efect of this new method in improvement of the bioactivity of PEEK. he mesenchymal stem cell
proliferation result showed better cells proliferation on the treated layer in comparison with untreated PEEK. he apatite formation
results showed the growth of the HA on the treated PEEK but there was not any sight of the growth of HA on the untreated PEEK
even ater 2 weeks. he results showed the new method of the HA deposition improved the bioactivity of the treated PEEK in
comparison with the bare PEEK.
1. Introduction
Recently PEEK has been considered as an ideal choice for
spinal fusion cage due to its low modulus of elasticity, excel-
lent chemical stability, resistance to radiation used in ster-
ilization procedures, transparency to radio waves, compati-
bility with reinforcing agent, and so forth. Food and Drug
Administration of United States (FDA) accepted the carbon-
iber-reinforced PEEK (CFR-PEEK) for spinal fusion cages
for human use in 1990s.
here is one big disadvantage of PEEK for orthopedic
application, which is its low bioactivity. For enhancement of
the bioactivity of PEEK, several methods have been proposed
such as plasma surface treatment [1], laser surface modiica-
tion [2], deposition of the HA coating layer [3], and com-
pounding with bioactive material such as HA and producing
bioactive composites [4]. he current commercial method for
improving the bioactivity of PEEK is deposition of HA via
plasma spraying method which has some disadvantages due
to the high temperature which is used during the deposition
of the HA coating layer and crystallization of the coated HA
[3]. In our previous study the HA crystalline particles were
deposited on PEEK and eliminate high temperature in the
deposition process [5].
In this study the bioactivity of the HA coated samples via
chemically deposition method was evaluated by in vitro study.
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
International Journal of Biomaterials
Volume 2015, Article ID 475435, 5 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/475435