[In vitro immune response to acrylic cement particles in patients with cemented joint replacements]

Immunological reaction to bone cement in tissue could be considered one of the important causes to induce the loosening of the prosthesis in patients with cemented prostheses. To study whether or not bone cement is immunogenic in human in vitro, the effect of acrylic cement particles on specific or non-specific blastformation reaction of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) or of non-adherent cells (NAC) was studied. Acrylic cement particles showed neither mitogenic nor cytotoxic effect on human PBM. No statistically significant enhancing effect of acrylic cement particles was found on specific or non-specific blastformation reaction of PBM or NAC from patients with cemented prostheses. No significant difference in those reactions to cement was seen between patients with loosened prostheses and with non-loosened prostheses. In some cases, however, acrylic cement particles showed significant enhancing effects on some macrophage-dependent blastformation reaction systems. As many of them were patients with cemented prostheses, it is highly possible that bone cement could induce significant macrophage-dependent immunological reaction in some particular population.