Evaluation techniques of metallic biomaterials in vitro

Metals and alloys are widely used as biomedical materials and are important in medicine and they cannot be replaced with ceramics or polymers at present mainly because of their high strength and toughness. Since safety is the most important property of biomaterials, corrosion-resistant materials such as stainless steel, Co–Cr–Mo alloy, commercially pure titanium, and titanium alloys are employed as biomaterials. Evaluation techniques for corrosion with culturing cells, the characterization of reconstruction of surface oxide film, fretting fatigue, cytotoxicity, and biocompatibility are reviewed in this paper. These techniques are original and characteristics in the field of biomaterials that should contribute to the proper evaluations of biomaterials in vitro. q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.