Immune responses to osteoarticular allografts of the knee – cytokine studies

Abstract

Immunological behaviour in correlation with bone allograft survival was studied in peripheral blood and synovial fluid from seven patients who had undergone large bone resection and allograft transplantation of the knee. Plasma and synovial fluid samples for cytokine measurements [interleukin (IL-1β, IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α)] were drawn from peripheral blood for diagnostic arthrocentesis. Two patients were monitored using consecutive sampling up to 12 months postoperatively. Graft survival was considered excellent, but local or diffuse resorption and also fatigue fractures were seen. These findings show that soluble products of T-cell, macrophage and osteoblast origin, produced as a response to the bone-graft antigens, might be responsible for the bone resorption seen in our material. The elevated IL-1β and TNF-α levels detected support this statement.