Compressive mechanical properties and cytocompatibility of bone-compliant, linoleic acid-modified bone cement in a bovine model

Abstract

Adjacent vertebral fractures are a common complication experienced by osteoporosis patients shortly after vertebroplasty. Whether these fractures are due to the bone cement properties, the cement filling characteristics or to the natural course of the disease is still unclear. However, some data suggests that such fractures might occur because of an imbalance in the load distribution due to a mismatch between the elastic modulus (E) of the bone–cement composite, and that of the vertebral cancellous bone. In this study, the properties of bone-compliant linoleic acid-modified bone cements were assessed using a bovine vertebroplasty model. Two groups of specimens (cement-only and bone–cement composites), and four subgroups comprising bone cements with elastic moduli in the range of 870–3500MPa were tested to failure in uniaxial compression. In addition, monomer release as well as time and concentration-dependent cytocompatibility was assessed through the cement extracts using a Saos-2 cell model. Composites augmented with bone-compliant cements exhibited a reduction in E despite their relatively high bone volume fraction (BVF). Moreover, a significant positive correlation between the BVF and the E for the composites augmented with 870MPa modulus cements was found. This was attributed to the increased relative contribution of the bone to the mechanical properties of the composites with a decrease in E of the bone cement. The use of linoleic acid reduced monomer conversion resulting in six times more monomer released after 24h. However, the cytocompatibility of the bone-compliant cements was comparable to that of the unmodified cements after the extracts were diluted four times. This study represents an important step towards introducing viable bone-compliant bone cements into vertebroplasty practice.