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An X-ray micro-fluorescence study to investigate the distribution of Al, Si, P and Ca ions in the surrounding soft tissue after implantation of a calcium phosphate-mullite ceramic composite in a rabbit animal model

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Abstract

Synthetic calcium phosphates, despite their bioactivity, are brittle. Calcium phosphate- mullite composites have been suggested as potential dental and bone replacement materials which exhibit increased toughness. Aluminium, present in mullite, has however been linked to bone demineralisation and neurotoxicity: it is therefore important to characterise the materials fully in order to understand their in vivo behaviour. The present work reports the compositional mapping of the interfacial region of a calcium phosphate—20 wt% mullite biocomposite/soft tissue interface, obtained from the samples implanted into the long bones of healthy rabbits according to standard protocols (ISO-10993) for up to 12 weeks. X-ray micro-fluorescence was used to map simultaneously the distribution of Al, P, Si and Ca across the ceramic–soft tissue interface. A well defined and sharp interface region was present between the ceramic and the surrounding soft tissue for each time period examined. The concentration of Al in the surrounding tissue was found to fall by two orders of magnitude, to the background level, within ~35 μm of the implanted ceramic.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank R.J. Newport for helpful discussions and advice; they acknowledge a British Council Award (No 13973) as well as funding from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. This research was conducted under the framework of UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) that facilitates the collaboration between IIT Kanpur and the University of Birmingham. The authors would like to thank the French National Synchrotron Facility, Soleil, for the allocation of beam-time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing, University of Aston, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK

    Richard A. Martin

  2. Department of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Zahira Jaffer & Artemis Stamboulis

  3. Laboratory for Biomaterials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Garima Tripathi, Shekhar Nath & Bikramjit Basu

  4. Division of Implant Biology, BMT Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

    Mira Mohanty

  5. School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NH, UK

    Victoria FitzGerald

  6. Synchrotron Soleil, L’Orme des Merisiers, BP 48, 91192, Gif/Yvette, France

    Pierre Lagarde & Anne-Marie Flank

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  1. Richard A. Martin
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  2. Zahira Jaffer
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  3. Garima Tripathi
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  10. Bikramjit Basu
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Correspondence to Richard A. Martin.

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Martin, R.A., Jaffer, Z., Tripathi, G. et al. An X-ray micro-fluorescence study to investigate the distribution of Al, Si, P and Ca ions in the surrounding soft tissue after implantation of a calcium phosphate-mullite ceramic composite in a rabbit animal model. J Mater Sci: Mater Med 22, 2537–2543 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-011-4428-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-011-4428-y

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