title: Design of a tribocorrosion bioreactor for the analysis of immune cell response to in situ generated wear products.
abstract: Adverse local tissue reactions to wear debris and corrosion products have lead to a sharp decline in the use of metal-on-metal (MOM) total hip athroplasties (THAs) clinically. Today, approximately 1 million patients are still carrying such a device. To gain a better understanding of the effect of wear and corrosion products on cells within the joint environment, it is important to generate conditions in vitro that resemble the in vivo system as closely as possible. In this paper, we present a novel tribocorrosion bioreactor that enables the simultaneous conduction of tribocorrosion and cell-culture experiments. In this setup, macrophage cell cultures are located in direct proximity to a tribological interface mimicking the sliding conditions of THA and are exposed to wear and corrosion products as they are generated. These products may include meta-stable species and metallo-organic complexes that have not been considered in earlier studies. The combination of standard tribological, electrochemical, and biological techniques is associated with several challenges that are described here in detail.
authors.affiliation: Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pourzal
authors.affiliation: University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cichon
authors.affiliation: Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.affiliation: Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Pacione
authors.affiliation: Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL ; University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Orthopedic Analysis, LLC, Department of Immunology, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612.
authors.forename: Nadim James
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Hallab
authors.affiliation: Rush University Med Ctr.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wimmer
mesh_terms: D019149:Bioreactors; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003343:Corrosion; D004563:Electrochemistry; D005549:Foreign-Body Reaction / Q000276:immunology; D006622:Hip Prosthesis / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages; D008422:Materials Testing; D061825:Metal-on-Metal Joint Prostheses / Q000009:adverse effects; D013499:Surface Properties