Abstract
The use of titanium alloys as biomaterials is increasing due to their superior biocompatibility and enhanced corrosion resistance compared to conventional stainless steels and cobalt-based alloys. Ti-6Al-4V ($\alpha+\beta$type) alloy instead of pure titanium ($\alpha$type) is being widely used as biomaterials has some characteristics such as high fatigue strength, tensile strength and corrosion resistance. It also has similar characteristics to Ti in inducing bony ingrowth. But it has been reported recently that the vanadium element expresses cytotoxicity and carcinogenicity and the aluminium element is related with dementia of Alzheimer type and neurotoxicity. In order to overcome their detrimental effects, $\beta$-phase stabilizer Nb was chosen in the present study. CP-Ti(ASTM grade 2), Ti-3wt.%Nb($\alpha$type), Ti-20wt.%Nb ($\alpha+\beta$type) and Ti-40 wt.%Nb($\beta$type) alloys were melted by vacuum arc furnace. Biocompatibility of Ti-Nb alloys was evaluated by cytotoxicity test. The results can be summarized as follows: 1. For the cytotoxicity test, Ti-Nb alloys showed excellent biocompatibility compared to CP-Ti(ASTM grade 2), 316L STS and Co-Cr alloys.