Simvastatin-loaded porous implant surfaces stimulate preosteoblasts differentiation: an in vitro study

Recent studies demonstrate that simvastatin stimulates bone formation, suggesting the potential application in dental implantology. In this study, our lab developed a simvastatin-loaded titanium porous surface. The aim was to investigate the effect of simvastatin-loaded titanium surfaces on the promotion of osteogenesis in preosteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) in vitro.

The control group consisted of cells cultured on titanium disks without any intervention for different time intervals (4, 7, and 14 days), and the experimental groups (simvastatin-loaded groups) consisted of cells cultured on titanium disks that were preincubated in varying concentration (10(-7) mol/L, 10(-6) mol/L, 10(-5) mol/L, and 10(-4) mol/L) of simvastatin for the same time intervals of the control group. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, type I collagen synthesis, and osteocalcin release were used to measure the cellular osteoblastic activities.

All simvastatin-loaded groups showed increased ALP activity compared with the control group at every time point, especially the 10(-7) mol/L group, which significantly increased the activity almost fourfold at 4 days (P < .05). In the type I collagen synthesis assay, all simvastatin-loaded groups showed an increase, and the effect was inverse dose dependent (maximal at 10(-7) mol/L). This stimulatory effect of simvastatin was also observed in the osteocalcin release assay (P < .05; at 10(-7) mol/L, 10(-6) mol/L, maximal at 10(-7) mol/L).

These results indicate that simvastatin-loaded porous implant surfaces promote accelerated osteogenic differentiation of preosteoblasts, which have the potential to improve the nature of osseointegration.