Surfaces play a vital role in biology and medicine with most biological reactions occurring at surfaces and interfaces. Therefore, the purpose of this workpackage consists of applying the surface functionalisation techniques considered in WP.B-C to develop materials with specific biomedical applications.
This WPD will deal with the antibacterial functionalisation for biomaterials used in prostheses in orthopaedic surgery. Bacterial adhesion on implant surfaces is a major reason for implant sequelae and can eventually lead to implant removal. This septic failure of prostheses introduces severe consequences not only for the patients in terms of quality of life, but also for the society, that faces very high economic expenditures. However, the bacterial adhesion process is a complex series of physical and chemical interactions between the substratum and microbes and, despite the intensive studies, the “in vivo” process is still not totally clarified.
FUNCOAT pretends to study the functionalisation of surfaces for creating mechanisms to protect implants against infection during the implantation process of prostheses in orthopaedic surgery: Two strategies are considered in this project: the development of antibacterial coatings (D1) that prevent the growth of bacteria and/or lead to their killing when adsorbed on their surface, and the surface modification to change the chemical properties (D2).
Other topic considered is related with the coating for biomaterial in total hip and knee replacements in order to increase the survival of the implanted joints, which is around 90 % after 15 years implantation. The current trends in this field involve two lines: new crosslinking ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) based on vitamin E and sequential irradiation-annealing, and new ceramic-ceramic or metal-metal joint pairs.
Bio-tribocorrosion is known to involve the interaction between mechanical wear processes and electrochemical and/or chemical corrosion process and leads to a material loss rate[28]. These synergetic effects of wear and corrosion are of great relevance and will also be considered in this WP.
The internal relationship between the activities/tasks with themselves and with other Work Packages is described in the following picture.