Abstract

Objectives: Nitrided surface layers improve wear and corrosion resistance of titanium alloys and demonstrate good biocompatibility. Their influence on the cytokines that play a role in inflammatory and repair reactions in bones has not been studied yet. This study tested whether nitrided surface layers produced under glow discharge conditions could protect against secretion of inflammatory mediators that are known to be induced by titanium alloys.
Methods: Production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 was measured in experimental cultures of human fibroblasts received from three donors and cultivated on Ti6Al4V alloy and titanium alloy samples with a TiN+Ti2N+αTi(N) type layer.
Results and conclusions: Analyses of the released cytokines showed that TiN layers induce secretion of inflammatory mediators to an even
lesser extent than titanium alloy, which confirms the value of nitrided surface layers in medical applications.

Keywords: Nitrided Titanium Alloy, Cytokines, Fibroblasts