Gold-nanoparticle decorated allograft tendons confer mitigation of inflammatory and oxidative species in vitro

Millions of people suffer from traumatic ligament ruptures every year. Tears of the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee are the most common ligament tear requiring surgical intervention. Without surgical intervention, this type of injury can be debilitating, painful, and athletic career-ending. Furthermore, damage to the ACL can lead to troublesome, chronic complications such as accelerated progression of osteoarthritis, even with modern surgical intervention. Most commonly, patients have their torn or ruptured ACL reconstructed with the use of a tendon graft, either autograft or allografts. Both graft material can result in prolonged and painful healing with limited capacity for total remodeling of the graft. It is hypothesized that these grafts can improve healing through the use of gold nanoparticles conjugated to the grafts. The proposed mechanism of enhanced ligamentization is through reduced excessive levels of inflammation. The conjugation process and modified physical properties of the grafts were examined, as well the cellular response to these alterations. The results demonstrated that the AuNP conjugated tendon grafts had a significant effect on cellular oxidation and inflammation levels. Additionally, the cells were shown to be biocompatible with AuNP modified grafts, as evidenced by metabolic and proliferation assays, however there was a notable decrease in these measures especially at the higher AuNPs concentration. It appeared that a AuNP concentration of less than 50 g/g AuNP to tissue will elicit a positive biocompatibility response while still reducing inflammatory response.