BIOCOMPATIBILITY STUDY OF EUROPIUM DOPED CRYSTALLINE HYDROXYAPATITE BIOCERAMICS

For the first time we presented the preliminary results of biocompatibility studies on bioceramic hydroxyapatite powders doped with europium Ca10-xEux(PO4)(6)(OH)(2), with 0.01 <= x(Eu) <= 0.2 prepared at low temperature by a simple coprecipitation approach. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies revealed the characteristic peaks of hydroxyapatite in each sample. No evidence for additional crystalline phases was found, proving the complete substitution of Eu in the HAp lattice in the whole range of concentrations. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations suggest that these materials present a little different morphology, which reveals a homogeneous aspect of the synthesized particles for all samples. The PL investigations shown the PL intensity changed considerably by varying the x(Eu). The value of x(Eu) in the hydroxyapatite formula has almost no effect on the wavelength of emission peaks. In order to test Hap_Eu biocompatibility, the effect of europium substituted hydroxyapatite nanocristalline powders with different x(Eu) on cell viability and proliferation of HEK293 cell line were evaluated. The in vitro investigation showed no significant decrease of viability of HEK293 cell line and low levels of intracellular lipid peroxidation in the Hap_Eu treated cells. In conclusion, the results suggest that Eu doped HAp has low toxicity and exhibit a good biocompatibility.