title: Repair of abdominal wall defects with biodegradable laminar prostheses: polymeric or biological?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Biological and synthetic laminar absorbable prostheses are available for the repair of hernia defects in the abdominal wall. They share the important feature of being gradually degraded in the host, resulting in place the formation of a neotissue. This study was designed to assess the host tissue's incorporation of collagen bioprostheses and a synthetic absorbable prosthesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Partial defects were created in the abdominal walls of 72 New Zealand rabbits and repaired using collagen bioprostheses Tutomesh® and Strattice® or a synthetic prosthesis Bio-A®. Specimens were collected for light microscopy, collagens gene and protein expression, macrophage response and biomechanical resistance at 14, 30, 90 and 180 days post-implantation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tutomesh® and Bio-A® were gradually infiltrated by the host tissue and almost completely degraded by 180 days post-implantation. In contrast, Strattice® exhibited material encapsulation, no prosthetic degradation and low cell infiltration at earlier timepoints, whereas at later study time, collagen deposition could be observed within the mesh. In the short term, Bio-A® exhibited higher level of collagen 1 and 3 mRNA expression compared with the two other biological prostheses, which exhibited two peaks of higher expression at 14 and 90 days. The expression of collagen III was homogeneous throughout the study and collagen I deposition was more evident in Strattice®. Macrophage response decreased over time in biomeshes. However, in the synthetic mesh remained high and homogeneous until 90 days. The biomechanical analysis demonstrated the progressively increasing tensile strength of all biomaterials.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The tissue infiltration of laminar absorbable prostheses is affected by the structure and composition of the mesh. The synthetic prosthesis exhibited a distinct pattern of tissue incorporation and a greater macrophage response than did the biological prostheses. Of all of the laminar, absorbable biomaterials that were tested in this study, Strattice® demonstrated the optimal levels of integration and degradation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Specialties, Networking Research Center on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Faculty of Medicine, Alcalá University, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Gemma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pascual
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sotomayor
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Bárbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pérez-Köhler
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bellón
mesh_terms: D034861:Abdominal Wall / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001705:Bioprosthesis; D024042:Collagen Type I / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D024061:Collagen Type III / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D011817:Rabbits; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures; D013526:Surgical Mesh
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D024042:Collagen Type I; D024061:Collagen Type III