A new concept for development of metallic biomaterials is proposed in this article, i.e., a certain bio-function can be realized for a metal implant through continuous release of a designed bio-functional metal element from surface of the metal implant in the body environment. This creative idea has been verified to be possible by several different in vitro and in vivo experimental evidences on the Cu-bearing stainless steels and magnesium based metals. It was indicated that a trace amount of Cu release from the Cu-bearing steels could have obvious bio-functions of reduction of the in-stent restenosis （ISR）, anti-bacterial infection, inhibiting the inflammatory cells and even promoting the early osteogenesis. Furthermore, the degradation of magnesium based metals in bones could promote the new bone formation, enhance the bone mineral density for the osteoporosis modeled animal, and even have strong anti-bacterial ability and strong cytotoxicity to bone tumor cells due to the enhancement of pH. Special bio-function with satisfied load-bearing capacity for metallic biomaterials will bring higher application values for the implant made of this novel material. This is an attractive direction for research and development with many challenges, but the final success will be much beneficial to the majority of patients.
Cu-bearing stainless steel has been found to have obvious inhibition performance against encrustation in vitro. This study was aiming to further investigate the inhibitory effect of a Cu-bearing stainless steel（316 L-Cu SS） on the infectious encrustation based on its antimicrobial activity. The encrustation in presence of bacteria, antibacterial performance, urease production and Ca and Mg precipitation were examined by scanning electron microscopy, antibacterial assay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, respectively. It was found that 316 L-Cu SS could inhibit the formation of bacterial biofilm due to the release of Cu^（2＋） ions and then decrease the urease amount splitting by bacteria, which produced a neutral environment with pH around 7. However, more encrustations coupled with bacterial biofilms on the surface of comparison stainless steel（316 L SS） with an alkaline environment were recorded. It can thus be seen that the 316 L-Cu SS highlights prominent superiority against encrustation in the presence of microorganisms.
Jing ZhaoLing RenBingchun ZhangZhiqiang CaoKe Yang
Although being an essential trace element required for human body health, Cu has long been seriously considered toxic when its amount exceeds certain limitation, which significantly limited the wide ap- plication of Cu in biomaterials. However, more and more bio-functions and benefits of Cu were found and confirmed, attracting the attention from biomaterials researchers in recent years. People have tried to immobilize Cu into biomaterials by various ways, in order to develop novel bio-functional Cu containing biomaterials with better bio-adaptions, and several different bio-functions of them have been demonstrated. This paper makes a review of the development of novel bio-functional Cu containing biomaterials, and focuses on their unique roles in enhancing bio-adaption of biomedical materials, including antibacterial performance, stimulating angiogenesis, promoting osteogenesis and inhibition of in-stent restenosis, aiming at proposing a prospective development direction for biomedical materials with better bio-adaptions.
