Regulation of osteoclast activity in peri-implant tissues

Implants, particularly joint replacement prostheses, are one of the great success stories of modern medicine. However, too many implants fail prematurely, mainly due to aseptic bone loss around the implant. This paper reviews our current understanding of the role of osteoclasts in this peri-implant bone lysis. Prosthetic particles, often produced by articulating prostheses, are one of the major causes of elevated osteoclast lysis of peri-implant bone. Over the past decade there have been major advances in our understanding of the factors that regulate osteoclast activity, many of which were found to be important in osteoclast formation and activity in the peri-implant tissues. These factors are targets of a number of recently developed drugs that have been used successfully to prevent and treat peri-implant bone lysis in experimental models. Treatments such as these are being used in a number of bone loss pathologies in humans and have the potential for successful treatment of peri-implant osteolysis. In addition, understanding how different biomaterials influence the expression of key osteoclastogenic factors may allow us to select biomaterials for implantation that will last the lifetime of the recipient.