Ag nanoparticle-coated zirconia for antibacterial prosthesis.

Unlabelled: Bacterial adhesion to dental materials is a major cause of caries and periodontitis, necessitating the development of compounds such as yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which are widely employed in medicine due to their high antimicrobial activity and low cytotoxicity. The main goal of this study is the synthesis of the broad antimicrobial activity of AgNP-coated YSZ with facile methods. The bactericidal AgNPs were immobilized on the surface of YSZ and tested for bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, Escherichia coli, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans based on ISO 22196:2007. The loading of AgNPs was optimized by culturing mouse fibroblast cells on AgNP-coated YSZ with cell viability test based on ISO 10993-5. In addition, the silver release profile of AgNP-coated YSZ in artificial saliva was determined using an accelerated aging test. Antibacterial activity, and cell viability test revealed optimum performance with no cytotoxicity at a level of 32 μg/cm. Accelerated aging test showed that the AgNP-coated surface was extremely stable, exhibiting a total silver leaching level of only 1% and confirming the effectiveness of this coating method for retaining AgNPs while exerting an antibacterial effect against oral pathogens. This finding also implies that the bactericidal action of AgNP-coated YSZ is not mediated by the released Ag ions, but rather corresponds to contact killing.

Abbreviations: Yttria-stabilized zirconia, YSZ; silver nanoparticles, AgNPs; field emission scanning electron microscopy, FE-SEM; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, XPS; grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, GIXRD; ultraviolet-visible, UV-vis; inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, ICP-AES.