3D printed zirconia ceramic hip joint with precise structure and broad-spectrum antibacterial properties

Background: Nowadays, zirconia ceramic implants are widely used as a kind of hip prosthesis material because of their excellent biocompatibility and long-term wear resistance. However, the hip joint is one of the major joints with complex 3D morphological structure and greatly individual differences, which usually causes great material waste during the process of surgical selection of prosthesis. Methods: In this paper, by combining ceramic 3D printing technology with antibacterial nano-modification, zirconia ceramic implant material was obtained with precise 3D structure and effective antibacterial properties. Among which, two technical problems (fragile and sintering induced irregular shrinkage) of 3D printed ceramics were effectively minimized by optimizing the reaction conditions and selective area inversing compensation. Through in vivo and in vitro experiments, it was confirmed that the as prepared hip prosthesis could precisely matched the corresponding parts, which also exhibited good biocompatibility and impressive antibacterial activities. Results: 1) Two inherent technical problems (fragile and sintering induced irregular shrinkage) of 3D printed ceramics were effectively minimized by optimizing the reaction conditions and selective area inversing compensation. 2) It could be seen that the surface of the ZrO₂ material was covered with a layer of ZnO nano-particles. A universal testing machine was used to measure the tensile, bending and compression experiments of ceramic samples. It could be found that the proposed ZnO modification had no significant effect on the mechanical properties of ZrO₂ ceramics. 3) According to the plate counting results, ceramics modified with ZnO exhibited significantly higher antibacterial efficiency than pure ZrO₂ ceramics, the ZrO₂-ZnO ceramics had a significant killing effect 8 hours. 4) The removed implants and the tissue surrounding the implant were subjected to HE staining. For ZrO₂-ZnO ceramics, inflammation was slight, while for pure ZrO₂ ceramics, the inflammatory response could be seen that the antibacterial rate of the ZrO₂-ZnO ceramics was significantly better than that of the pure ZrO₂ ceramics group. 5) It could be seen that the cytotoxicity did not increase proportionally with the increase of concentration, all of viability were still above 80%. This suggested that our materials were safe and could be applied as a type of potential biomaterial in the future. 6) Further animal studies demonstrated that the implant was in good position without dislocation. This resulted implied that the proposed method can achieve accurate 3D printing preparation of ceramic joints. In addition, the femurs and surrounding muscles around the implant were then sectioned and HE stained. Results of muscle tissue sections further showed no significant tissue abnormalities, and the growth of new bone tissue was observed in the sections of bone tissue. Conclusion: 1) The ceramic 3D printing technology combined with antibacterial nano-modification can quickly customize the ideal implant material with precise structure, wear-resistant and effective antibacterial properties. 2) Two inherent technical problems (fragile and sintering induced irregular shrinkage) of 3D printed ceramics were effectively minimized by optimizing the reaction conditions and selective area inversing compensation. 3) ZnO nano-materials were modified on the ceramic surface, which could effectively killing pathogenic bacteria.