Electrodeposition of pronectin for titanium to augment gingival epithelium adhesion

This paper is one trial of surface modification of titanium with pronectin F+ (PN) of an artificial protein to enhance gingival adhesion. Titanium plates were electrodeposited in the PN solution to prepare PN‐electrodeposited titanium plates. When PN detachment from the PN‐electrodeposited titanium plates was investigated, no detachment was observed, in contrast to the case of titanium plates simply coated with PN. A cell culture experiment demonstrated that electrodeposited PN had an inherent ability to enhance the initial attachment of gingival epithelial cells. The PN‐electrodeposited titanium plates were implanted between the gingival epithelium and the underlying bone tissue of rabbits to evaluate epithelial growth on the plates and their gingival adhesion. Non‐treated and PN‐coated titanium plates were used as controls. PN electrodeposition enhanced epithelial growth and adhesion of titanium plates to a significantly great extent compared with PN‐coated plates. These findings demonstrate that PN electrodeposition is a promising method to enhance epithelium adhesion onto a titanium surface. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.