Bio-Inspired Micro- and Nano-Scale Surface Features Produced by Femtosecond Laser-Texturing Enhance TiZr-Implant Osseointegration

Surface design plays a critical role in determining the integration of dental implants with bone tissue. Femtosecond laser-texturing has emerged as a breakthrough technology offering excellent uniformity and reproducibility in implant surface features. However, when compared to state-of-the-art sandblasted and acid-etched surfaces, laser-textured surface designs typically underperform in terms of osseointegration. This study investigates the capacity of a bio-inspired femtosecond laser-textured surface design to enhance osseointegration compared to state-of-the-art sandblasted & acid-etched surfaces. Laser-texturing facilitates the production of an organized trabeculae-like microarchitecture with superimposed nano-scale laser-induced periodic surface structures on both 2D and 3D samples of titanium-zirconium-alloy. Following a boiling treatment to modify the surface chemistry, improving wettability to a contact angle of 10°, laser-textured surfaces enhance fibrin network formation when in contact with human whole blood, comparable to state-of-the-art surfaces. In vitro experiments demonstrate that laser-textured surfaces significantly outperform state-of-the-art surfaces with a 2.5-fold higher level of mineralization by bone progenitor cells after 28 days of culture. Furthermore, in vivo evaluations reveal superior biomechanical integration of laser-textured surfaces after 28 days of implantation. Notably, during abiological pull-out tests, laser-textured surfaces exhibit comparable performance, suggesting that the observed enhanced osseointegration is primarily driven by the biological response to the surface.