A research group at Tohoku University has revealed that ultra-high-purity iron can be used as a substrate for adhering and proliferating various cultured mammalian cells without surface treatment.It is expected to be used as a new medical material and cell culture substrate.
Metallic materials are widely used as medical materials such as artificial tooth roots (implants), plates and bolts for fixing bones, and stents for reinforcing and expanding blood vessels and gastrointestinal tracts.However, there are negative aspects such as harmful effects of trace metals eluted by long-term transplantation in the body, onset of metal toxicity and metal allergies, adhesion to surrounding cells and tissues after transplantation, and weak compatibility.
Iron is one of the most abundant essential metal elements in the living body, but iron ion excess is cytotoxic, and highly corrosive general-purpose pure iron cannot be used as a biomaterial.
The research group realized that the known property of iron was masked by a large amount of impurity elements, and spent 30 years developing an innovative ultra-high purification technology.Pursuing the original properties of iron, we have refined ultra-high-purity iron (ABIKO-iron) with a purity of 99.9996% ± 0.0003% and proved novel properties such as plasticity and corrosion resistance that exceeded expectations.
This time, we investigated biocompatibility from the three viewpoints of cell adhesion and proliferative activity of various cultured mammalian cells on the metal surface of Abiko Iron, and cell differentiation potential.As a result, Abiko-Iron has excellent cell adhesion, cell proliferation on the metal surface, and when the culture medium is replaced with a differentiation-inducing medium, from myoblasts to myotube cells and from mesenchymal stem cells to osteoblasts, respectively. It was also possible to induce differentiation into.
In addition, analysis of various gene expressions did not induce negative gene expression such as biotoxicity and heavy metal stress response.As a result, it is expected to be used as a new medical material for innovative implant materials, plates, bolts, stent materials, etc. with high safety and biocompatibility.
Paper information:[Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials] Ultra-high-purity iron is a novel and very compatible biomaterial
