Tracking soluble and nanoparticulated titanium released in vivo from metal dental implant debris using (single-particle)-ICP-MS.

BACKGROUND: This work studies the presence of the Ti, Al and V metal ions and Ti nanoparticles released from the debris produced by the implantoplasty, a surgical procedure used in the clinic, in rat organs. METHODS: The sample preparation for total Ti determination was carefully optimized using microsampling inserts to minimize the dilution during the acid attack of the lyophilized tissues by a microwave-assisted acid digestion method. An enzymatic digestion method was optimized and applied to the different tissue samples in order to extract the titanium nanoparticles for the single-particle ICP-MS analysis. RESULTS: A statistically significant increase was found for Ti concentrations from control to experimental groups for several of the studied tissues, being and particularly significant in the case of brain and spleen. Al and V concentrations were detected in all tissues but they were not different when comparing control and experimental animals, except for V in brain. The possible presence of Ti-containing nanoparticles mobilized from the implantoplasty debris was tested using enzymatic digestions and SP-ICP-MS. The presence of Ti-containing nanoparticles was observed in all the analyzed tissues, however, differences on the Ti mass per particle were found between the blanks and the digested tissue and between control and experimental animals in some organs. CONCLUSION: The developed methodologies, both for ionic and nanoparticulated metal contents in rat organs, have shown the possible increase in the levels of Ti both as ions and nanoparticles in rats subjected to implantoplasty.