A "best fit" approach for synergistic surface parameters to guide the design of candidate implant surfaces

Human bone resorption surfaces can provide a template for endosseous implant surface design. We characterized the topography of such sites using four synergistic parameters (fractal dimension, lacunarity, porosity, and surface roughness) and compared the generated values with those obtained from two groups of candidate titanium implant surfaces. For the first group (n = 5/group): grit-blasted acid etched (BAE), BAE with either discrete calcium phosphate crystal deposition or nanotube formation, machined titanium with nanotubes, or a nanofiber surface; each measured synergistic parameter was statistically compared with that of the resorbed bone surface and scored for inclusion in a "best fit" analysis. The analysis informed changes that could be made to a candidate implant surface to render it a closer "best fit" to that of the resorbed bone surface. In a second group of either titanium or titanium alloy implants their micro-topography, created by dual acid etching, was the same for each material substrate; but their nanotopographic complexity was changed by varying the degree of calcium phosphate crystalline deposits. These implants were also used in vivo where bone anchorage was tested using a tensile disruption test; and the "best fit" of synergistic parameters coincided with the best biological outcome for both titanium and titanium alloy implants. In conclusion, the four chosen synergistic parameters can be used to guide the sub-micron surface design of candidate implants, and our "best fit" approach is capable of identifying the surfaces with the best biological outcomes. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B: 2165-2177, 2019.