Zirconia-toughened alumina ceramic wear particles do not elicit inflammatory responses in human macrophages

Porporati, Alessandro Alan (author), Mödinger, Yvonne (author), Fischer, Sarah (author), Polajžer, Sara (author), Mettang, Melanie (author), Deisinger, Ulrike (author), Podlogar, Matejka (author), Trebše, Rihard (author), Lovšin, Nika (author)

Ten percent of patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) require revision surgery. One of the reasons for THA are wear particles released from the implants that can activate the immune defense and cause osteolysis and failure of the joint implant. The discrepancies between reports on toxicity and immunogenicity of the implant materials led us to this study in which we compared toxicity and immunogenicity of well-defined nanoparticles from Al$_2$O$_3$, zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA), and cobalt chrome (CoCr), a human THP-1 macrophage cell line, human PBMCs, and therefrom-derived primary macrophages. None of the tested materials decreased the viability of THP-1 macrophages nor human primary macrophages at the 24 h time point, indicating that at concentrations from 0.05 to 50 µm$^3$/cell the tested materials are non-toxic. Forty-eight hours of treatment of THP-1 macrophages with 5 µm$^3$/cell of CoCr and Al$_2$O$_3$ caused 8.3-fold and 4.6-fold increases in TNF-α excretion, respectively, which was not observed for ZTA. The comparison between THP-1 macrophages and human primary macrophages revealed that THP-1 macrophages show higher activation of cytokine expression in the presence of CoCr and Al$_2$O$_3$ particles than primary macrophages. Our results indicate that ZTA is a non-toxic implant material with no immunogenic effects in vitro.

• Language: English
• Keywords: orthopaedic implant, alumina, zirconia-toughened alumina, ZTA, nanoparticles, macrophages, cell viability, inflammation, cytokine secretion
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FFA - Faculty of Pharmacy; MF - Faculty of Medicine
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 24, iss. 7, art. 6482
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-145026
• UDC: 66.017-022.513.2:620.3
• ISSN on article: 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms24076482
• COBISS.SI-ID: 147226627
• Publication date in RUL: 30.03.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of molecular sciences
• Shortened title: Int. j. mol. sci.
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1422-0067
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2779162

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: ortopedski vsadek, aluminijev oksid, s cirkonijem utrjeni aluminijev oksid, ZTA, nanodelci, makrofagi, sposobnost preživetja celic, vnetje, izločanje citokinov, citokini, nanomateriali, vnetje