Iron(III) and manganese(II) substituted hydroxyapatite nanoparticles: Characterization and cytotoxicity analysis

Calcium hydroxyapatite (HA) is the main inorganic component of natural bones and can bond to bone directly in vivo. Thus HA is widely used as coating material on bone implants due to its good osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity. Metal ions doped HA have been used as catalyst or absorbents since the ion exchange method has introduced new properties in HA which are inherent to the metal ions. For example, Mn²⁺ ions have the potential to increase cell adhesion while Fe³⁺ ions have magnetic properties. Here, Fe(III) substituted hydroxyapatite (Fe-HA) and Mn(II) substituted hydroxyapatite (Mn-HA) were produced by wet chemical method coupled with ion exchange mechanism. Compared with pure HA, the colour of both Fe-HA and Mn-HA nanoparticles changed from white to brown and pink respectively. The intensity of the colours increased with increasing substitution concentrations. XRD patterns showed that all samples were single phased HA while the FTIR spectra revealed all samples possessed the characteristic phosphate and hydroxyl adsorption bands of HA. However, undesired adsorption bands of carbonate substitution (B-type carbonated HA) and H₂O were also detected, which was reasonable since the wet chemical method was used in the synthesis of these nanoparticles. FESEM images showed all samples were elongated spheroids with small size distribution and of around 70 nm, regardless of metal ion substitution concentrations. EDX spectra showed the presence of Fe and Mn and ICP-AES results revealed all metal ion substituted HA were non-stoichiometric (Ca/P atomic ratio deviates from 1.67). Fe-HA nanoparticles were paramagnetic and the magnetic susceptibility increased with the increase of Fe content. Based on the extraction assay for cytotoxicity test, both Fe-HA and Mn-HA displayed non-cytotoxicity to osteoblast.