Modifications of Hydroxyapatite by Gallium and Silver Ions—Physicochemical Characterization, Cytotoxicity and Antibacterial Evaluation

Abstract

Hydroxyapatite (HA) powders enriched with silver or gallium ions or both were synthesized by two different routes: standard precipitation and the solid-state method. The powders were characterized by using several methods: inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (ssNMR). The effects of enrichment of the HAs in Ag+ or Ga3+ or both on in vitro cytotoxicity and microbiological activity were discussed. PXRD experiments showed that the samples obtained by the wet method consisted of single-phase nanocrystalline HA, while the samples prepared via the solid-state method are microcrystalline with a small amount of calcium oxide. The introduction of higher amounts of silver ions was found to be more effective than enriching HA with small amounts of Ag+. Gallium and silver ions were found not to affect the lattice parameters. Ga3+ affected the crystallinity of the samples as well as the content of structural hydroxyl groups. Among samples synthesized by the wet method, only one (5Ag-HAw) was cytotoxic, whereas all Ga-containing samples obtained by the dry method showed cytotoxicity. In the preliminary antimicrobial test all the materials containing “foreign” ions showed high antibacterial activity.