Nickel titanium shape memory metal alloy Nitinol (NiTi) has been used in dental wares and in gastrointestinal surgery. Nitinol is a promising implant material in orthopedics, but its biocompatibility, especially in long-term implantation is not confirmed yet. We studied Nitinol's effect on a cell culture model. Comparisons to stainless steel, pure titanium and pure nickel were performed. The effects of Nitinol on cell death rate, the apoptosis rate and the formation of local contacts were studied on rat osteosarcoma cell line ROS-17 in 48-h cultures. The cell death rate was assessed with combined calcein-ethidium-homodimer labelling. The amount of dead cells 1000 cells were as follows: four in the NiTi, 21 in the Stst, 4.8 in the Ti and 51 in the Ni group. In the NiTi and Ti groups, the number of dead cells was significantly lower (p