Sergiy Zankovych

Freezing of rat tibiae at -20°c does not affect the mechanical properties of intramedullary bone/implant-interface: brief report.

Background: The effects of freezing-thawing cycles on intramedullary bone-implant interfaces have been studied in a rat model in mechanical pull-out tests. Implants: Twenty TiAl6V4 rods (Ø 0.8 mm, length 10 mm) implanted in rat tibiae Methods: 10 rats underwent bilateral tibial implantation of titanium rods. At eight weeks, the animals were sacrificed and tibiae harvested for biomechanical testing. Eight tibiae were frozen and stored at -20°C for 14 days, the remaining eight were evaluated immediately post-harvest. Pull-out tests were used to determine maximum force and interfacial shear strength. Results: There were no significant differences between fresh and those of the frozen-thawed group in maximum force or in interfacial shear strength. Conclusion: Frozen Storage of rat tibiae containing implants at -20° C has no effects on the biomechanical properties of Bone/ Implant interface.

Controlling Cell Growth by Nanoparticles

We report preliminary results of using nanoparticles to control cell attachment and growth. We present the way to create titanium surfaces with different roughness in a rage between 2 nm and 117 nm by using nanoparticles as a superficial layer and varying the evaporation parameters. We examined cell proliferation on titanium substrates with increased surface roughness compared to smooth titanium surface. We used nanoparticles to create a micrometer-sized lateral layout onto substrates preliminary structured by microcontact printing. We demonstrate controlled cell growth on substrates laterally structured with nanoparticles.