Tissue Response in Biomaterials

Abstract

Biomaterials are now commonly used as implants and other tissue contacting medical devices. Complications of biomaterials and medical devices result largely as a consequence of biomaterial-tissue interactions, which all implants have with the environment into which they are placed. Effects of both the implant on the host tissues and the host on the implant are important in mediating complications and device failure. Most important host reactions to biomaterials and their evaluation are non-specific inflammation and specific immunological reactions, systemic effects, blood-materials interactions, tumor formation, and infection. These interactions arise from alterations of physiological (normal) processes (e.g. immunity, inflammation, blood coagulation) comprising host defense mechanisms that function to protect an organism from deleterious external threats (such as bacteria and other microbiologic organisms, injury, and foreign materials).