Spontaneous Formation of Bonelike Apatite Layer on Chemically Treated Titanium Metals

Generally, artificial materials implanted into bone defects are encapsulated by a fibrous tissue isolating them from the surrounding bone. Only limited kinds of ceramics are known to bond to living bone without forming the fibrous tissue, and already they are being used clinically as important artificial bones. However, they cannot be used under highly loaded conditions, since their fracture toughnesses are not so high as that of human cortical bone. The present study shows that even pure titanium metal and its alloys can bond to living bone, if their surfaces are pre-treated with alkali hydroxide solutions. Thus-treated metals are believed to be useful as artificial bones even under highly loaded conditions because of their high bone-bonding ability as well as high fracture toughness.