The recent studies on fluorapatite and hydroxyapatite, in the context of their medical applications, have shown that the former has relatively higher thermal stability and better mechanical properties than the latter. Moreover, the presence of fluoride ions is relevant for protection of teeth from dental caries since they stimulate processes of mineralization and crystallization. In this report, a silver modified fluorapatite (FAP/Ag), considered as a novel biomedical compound, was tested for its bactericidal, fungicidal and cytotoxicity activity. All these features were compared to the impact of pure FAP and were evaluated against the bacteria and fungi strains, which constitute main pathogenic species among orthopedic clinical isolates of implant-associated infections. Generally, considerable increase in the antimicrobial activity was observed when silver modified fluorapatite was compared to the pure material. This was manifested among others by disturbance of cell growth pattern and various deformations in the final cell shape as revealed using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Regarding toxicity nowadays as a major issue in implantation, we additionally examined whether the Ag⁺ ions have an impact on human keratinocytes and mouse fibroblasts using a cytotoxicity assay. To conclude, owing to a great bactericidal potential without collateral cytotoxicity effect the fluorapatite doped with silver ions may be considered a promising biocomponent useful in medical and healthcare applications.

中文翻译：

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对抗细菌和真菌的替代方法：使用改良的氟磷灰石。

在氟磷灰石和羟基磷灰石的医学应用方面，最近的研究表明，前者具有比后者更高的热稳定性和更好的机械性能。此外，氟离子的存在与保护牙齿免受龋齿有关，因为它们刺激矿化和结晶过程。在本报告中，对一种被认为是新型生物医学化合物的银改性氟磷灰石（FAP / Ag）进行了杀菌，杀真菌和细胞毒性试验。将所有这些特征与纯FAP的影响进行了比较，并针对细菌和真菌菌株进行了评估，这些菌株是与植入物相关的感染的整形外科临床分离株中的主要致病菌种。通常，当将银改性的氟磷灰石与纯材料进行比较时，观察到了抗菌活性的显着提高。这尤其通过细胞生长模式的干扰和最终细胞形状的各种变形来证明，如使用原子力显微镜（AFM）所揭示的。如今，关于毒性已成为植入的主要问题，我们另外检查了银⁺离子通过细胞毒性试验对人角质形成细胞和小鼠成纤维细胞产生影响。总之，由于没有潜在的细胞毒性作用的巨大的杀菌潜力，掺有银离子的氟磷灰石被认为是在医疗和保健应用中有用的有前途的生物组分。