Zinc‐ and strontium‐ co‐incorporated nanorods on titanium surfaces with favorable material property, osteogenesis, and enhanced antibacterial activity

Abstract Early infection and peri‐implantitis after implant restoration are major reasons for dental implant failure. Implant‐associated infections are majorly attributed to biofilm formation. In this study, co‐incorporated zinc‐ (Zn‐) and strontium‐ (Sr‐) nanorod coating on sandblasted and acid‐etched (SLA) titanium (SLA‐Zn/Sr) was fabricated by hydrothermal synthesis. It was aimed at promoting osteogenesis while inhibiting biofilm formation. The nanorod‐like particles (φ 30–50 nm) were found to be evenly formed on SLA‐Zn/Sr (Zn: 1.49 ± 0.16 wt%; Sr: 21.69 ± 2.74 wt%) that was composed of well‐crystallized ZnTiO₃ and SrTiO₃ phases. With a sufficient interface bonding strength (42.00 ± 3.00 MPa), SLA‐Zn/Sr enhanced the corrosion resistance property of titanium. Besides, SLA‐Zn/Sr promoted the cellular initial adhesion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rBMSCs in vitro while inhibiting the adhesion of Staphylococcus aureus and Porphyromonas gingivalis . In addition, through down‐regulating icaA gene expression, this novel surface reduced the secretion of polysaccharide intercellular adhesion (reduced by 87.9% compared to SLActive) to suppress the S. aureus biofilm formation. We, therefore, propose a new chemical modification on titanium for multifunctional implant material development. Due to the Zn/Sr co‐doping in coating, material properties, early osteogenic effect and antibacterial ability of titanium can be simultaneously enhanced, which has the potential to be applied in dental implantation in the future.