Effects of silver/selenium/chitosan doped hydroxyapatite coatings on REX-734 alloy: Morphology, antibacterial activity, and cell viability

The goal of this study was to improve the antibacterial activity and cell viability of the Rex-734 alloy in biomedical applications. Various biocomposite coatings, such as single-layer hydroxyapatite (HAp), HAp/silver(Ag), and HAp/selenium(Se)/chitosan(Chit), were applied to Rex-734 alloy at various film thicknesses. The surface coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, SEM, EDX, XRD and coating thickness and hardness of surface coatings were measured. The in vitro antibacterial activities of the coated and uncoated substrates were tested against Esherichia coli JM 103 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC29293. In vitro cell–material interactions using Saos-2 osteoblast cells were characterized by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol2-yl)− 2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay for cell viability. The post-coating sintering parameters were shown to have a significant effect on the surface morphology. When compared to single HAp and HAp/Ag coatings, Se and Chit additions to HAp powders revealed good crack-free coating surfaces. Crack-free coating morphologies were achieved with a sintering speed of 3 °C/min. While single-HA coatings had an antimicrobial efficiency of 83% against E. coli, this value increased to 94% with Ag additive and to 85% with Se additive. Similarly, Ag and Se additives improved HAp's antimicrobial efficiency against Staphylococcus aureus. Cell viability decreased in the HAp/Ag coating at 86.5% and 90.93%, but increased significantly (p < 0.05) in the HA/Se-Chit coating at 137,43% and 158.23% at the end of the first and seventh days of incubation, respectively. The addition of Ag/Se/Chit to HAp increased the viability of the Rex-734 cells. Furthermore, it was revealed that the HAp-doped Se/Chit duplex biocomposite coating groups increased bone cell viability at much higher rates than the single-layer HAp coatings.