Histomorphological study of bone response to hydroxyapatite coating on stainless steel

Bone response to hydroxyapatite coating on stainless steel has not been so extensively tested in animals as it happened for other metallic substrate, like Ti6Al4V. For this reason, authors performed an in vivo histomorphological electron microscopic study of hydroxyapatite coating on duplex stainless steel cylinders, to gather further evidences on the characters of bone apposition at the interface. Sixteen HA-coated cylinders were implanted in the distal femur of New Zealand White rabbits. Comparison with uncoated controls was made. Retrieval steps were at: 4, 8, 26 and 34 weeks. Specimens were analyzed in a Jeol JSM 6301F scanning electron microscope. The response to HA-coated samples has a morphological character of tight apposition between bone and coating. Osteocytic lacunae may be found few microns close to the coating and newly formed bone is extremely interlocked with it so that even an higher magnification electron-microscopy cannot resolve any discontinuity in between. Pictures of physiological bone-turnover are distinguishable at the bone-coating interface; areas of well preserved coating may be present together with areas where local exfoliation or fragmentation has already completely exposed the metallic substrate. On the opposite in uncoated samples, despite a morphological picture of properly formed bone, the largest area of the metal has no direct apposition with it.