The effect of enzymatically degradable IPN coatings on peri-implant bone formation and implant fixation

Short-term osseointegration of orthopedic implants is critical for the long-term stability of the implant-bone interface. To improve initial implant stability, one strategy under consideration involves the presentation of adhesion ligands on the implant surface to stimulate bone regeneration in the peri-implant region. To assess the relative effects of implant surface chemistry and topography on osseointegration within the rat femoral ablation implant model, a nonfouling, enzymatically degradable interpenetrating polymer network (edIPN) of poly(AAm-co-EG/AAc) amenable to presenting the cell signaling domain Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD), was developed. Moderate enhancement of peri-implant bone formation was found after 28 days using the edIPN without peptide modification (p = 0.032). However, no data supported a benefit of peptide modification, as bone-implant contact, normalized bone volume and normalized fixation strength was equivalent or poorer than dual acid-etched (DAE) treated implants after 28 days. Surface topography was determined to be the dominant factor in modulating osseointegration, as DAE implants produced equivalent roughness-normalized fixation strength versus previously reported data on plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite/tricalcium phosphate-coated implants (Barber et al., J Biomed Mater Res A, forthcoming). An ideal osseointegrated implant will require optimization of all three aforementioned parameters, and may take the form of biomolecule delivery from thin degradable polymer networks.