Glass fibre reinforced porous bone cement implanted in rat tibia or femur histological and histomorphometric analysis

Acrylic bone cements are used to fix joint replacements to bone. Typically, these cements are fabricated combining a polymer powder and a monomer liquid component together, of which the monomer phase autopolymerizes within 10-15 min after mixing the components. The main substance in powder is poly(methylmethacrylate) or related copolymers, and in liquid, methylmethacrylate monomer or related monomer. Shortcomings of the bone cements include among others the dense polymer structure of cement that does not allow bone ingrowth into cement. In this study, the biological behavior of porous bone cement was investigated in vivo. The porous structure was in situ created using pore-generating filler (20 wt%), i.e. an experimental biodegradable polyamide of naturally occuring trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline, which was incorporated in non-degradable acrylic bone cement. According to the histological evaluation of the modified bone cement, signs of bone ingrowth to the cement were noticed.