Long‐Term Prevention of Bacterial Infection and Enhanced Osteoinductivity of a Hybrid Coating with Selective Silver Toxicity

Antibacterial and osteogenic design is required for ideal orthopedic implants. The excellent antimicrobial performance of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has attracted interest for the treatment of implant‐related infections. However, the dose‐dependent cytotoxicity of silver and its negative impact on bone implants restrict the further use of AgNPs coatings. Therefore, a hybrid coating containing polydopamine (PDA), hydroxyapatite (HA), AgNPs, and chitosan (CS) is prepared. Organic chelators CS and PDA that have promising biocompatibility are used to prevent the rapid release of silver ions from the AgNPs coating. The double chelating effect of PDA and CS significantly reduces silver ion release from the hybrid coating. The coating exhibits excellent anti‐biofilm efficiency of 91.7%, 89.5%, and 92.0% for Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Escherichia coli, respectively. In addition, the coating can significantly stimulate osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3‐E1 cells and promote bone‐implant osseointegration in vivo as compared to that in the control group. The longitudinal biosafety of the coating is confirmed in vivo by histological evaluation and blood tests. The results of this study indicate that the hybrid coating exhibits antibacterial properties as well as allow bone‐implant osseointegration, thereby providing insight into the design of multifunctional implants for long‐term orthopedic applications. The dose‐dependent cytotoxicity is the major drawback of AgNP‐based coatings. In this study, organic chelators CS and PDA are designed to reduce the rapid silver ion release and improve biocompatibility of HA/Ag/CS coating. Due to the double chelating effect of PDA and CS, the coating exhibits excellent antibacterial effects with good osteogenic performance and longitudinal biocompatibility.