BACKGROUND: In our earlier work, tobermorite containing calcium phosphate (CP) clusters (CP-Tob) was hydrothermally prepared in the CaO-SiO2-P2O5-H2O system for biomedical applications.
OBJECTIVE: CP-Tob was used to investigate the influence of CP cluster incorporation on its biocompatibility.
METHODS: Tobermorite samples with and without CP clusters were hydrothermally prepared at 180 degrees C for 40 h. The biocompatibility, structure, and density of states of the tobermorite samples were investigated by experimental and first principles methods.
RESULTS: The amounts of lysozyme and bovine serum albumin adsorbed on CP-Tob were higher than those on tobermorite without CP clusters. Cluster incorporation caused a decrease in the solubility, resulting in the enhancement of the cell compatibility. The calculated results indicated that incorporating clusters, which interact with the silicate units of tobermorite, led to a change of the density of states of tobermorite.
CONCLUSIONS: Incorporation of CP clusters in tobermorite led to improvement of the biocompatibility evaluated by biological and computational analyses.