How milling parameters influence surface texture and osteoblasts response when manufacturing Ti6Al4V medical parts

Abstract

Every manufacturing process alters the state of a surface, endowing it with new attributes that engineers use to enhance the performance of the finished products. When these surfaces come into contact with the human body, they exert specific influences depending on their condition affecting medical device biocompatibility. This study shows how a titanium alloy surface, characterized by standard measurement parameters such as roughness and contact angle, specifically influences the response of osteoblast-like cells in terms of proliferation and morphology. This relationship is quantified by comparing different machine learning techniques.

More in detail, the impact of the milling process on Ti6Al4V substrates on the growth of the human osteosarcoma cell line MG63 has been investigated. By varying the technological parameters such as the cutting speed and depth and, consequently, the surface condition, the number of cells after a 72-h culture was measured to correlate cell proliferation with the process parameters. Ultimately, it is conceivable that with further research, surfaces could be designed to elicit varying cellular responses by appropriately combining manufacturing processes and their technological parameters.