Carbon–carbon composite bearing materials in hip arthroplasty: analysis of wear and biological response to wear debris

Abstract

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene wear particles have been implicated as the major cause of osteolysis, implant loosening and late aseptic failure in total hip arthroplasties in vivo. This study initially screened 22 carbon–carbon composite materials as alternatives for UHMWPE in joint bearings. New bearing materials should satisfy certain criteria – they should have good wear properties that at least match UHMWPE, and produce wear particles with low levels of cytotoxic and osteolytic activity. Initial screening was based on wear resistance determined in short-term tribological pin-on-plate tests. Three materials (HMU–PP(s), HMU–RC–P(s), and SMS–RC–P(s)) which had superior wear resistance were selected for long-term testing. All materials had very low wear factors and SMS–RC–P(s), which had a wear factor of 0.08±0.56×10⁻⁷ mm³/Nm, was selected for the subsequent biological testing and particle size analysis. SMS–RC–P(s) showed good biocompatibility in bulk material form and also the wear particles had low cytotoxicity for L929 fibroblasts in culture compared to metal wear particles. Wear debris size analysis by transmission electron microscopy showed that the particles were very small, with the vast majority being under 100 nm in size, similar to metal wear particles. The potential osteolytic effect of SMS–RC–P(s) wear particles was investigated by culturing particles with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and measuring TNFα production. SMS–RC–P(s) did not significantly stimulate TNFα production at a particle volume to cell number ratio of 80 : 1, indicating that the debris had a low osteolytic potential. The results of this study suggest that carbon–carbon composites, particularly those composed of PAN-based fibers may be important biomaterials in the development of next generation bearing surfaces for use in total joint replacements that have very low wear rates and reduced osteolytic and cytotoxic potential.