PostprintThis is the accepted version of a paper published in Journal of The Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proofcorrections or journal pagination. Citation for the original published paper (version of record):López, A., Mestres, G., Karlsson Ott, M., Engqvist, H., Ferguson, S. et al. (2014) Compressive mechanical properties and cytocompatibility of bone-compliant, linoleic acidmodified bone cement in a bovine model. Journal of The Mechanical AbstractAdjacent vertebral fractures are a common complication experienced by osteoporosis patients shortly after vertebroplasty. Whether these fractures are due to the bone cement properties, the cement filling characteristics or to the natural course of the disease is still unclear. However, some data suggests that such fractures might occur because of an imbalance in the load distribution due to a mismatch between the elastic modulus (E) of the bonecement composite, and that of the vertebral cancellous bone. In this study, the properties of bone-compliant linoleic acid-modified bone cements were assessed using a bovine vertebroplasty model. Two groups of specimens (cementonly and bone-cement composites), and four subgroups comprising bone cements with elastic moduli in the range of 870-3500 MPa were tested to failure in uniaxial compression. In addition, monomer release as well as time and concentration-dependent cytocompatibility was assessed through the cement extracts using a Saos-2 cell model.Composites augmented with bone-compliant cements exhibited a reduction in E despite of their relatively high bone volume fraction (BVF). Moreover, a significant positive correlation between the BVF and E for the composites augmented with 870 MPa modulus cements was found. This was attributed to the increased relative contribution of the bone to the mechanical properties of the composites with a decrease in E of the bone cement. The use of linoleic acid reduced monomer conversion resulting in six times more monomer released after 24 hours. However, the cytocompatibility of the bone-compliant cements was comparable to that of the unmodified cements after the extracts were diluted four times. This study represents an important step towards introducing viable bone-compliant bone cements into vertebroplasty practice.

One of the major issues with the currently available injectable biomaterials for hard tissue replacement is the mismatch between their mechanical properties and those of the surrounding bone. Hybrid bone cements that combine the benefits of tough polymeric and bioactive ceramic materials could become a good alternative. In this work, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) was copolymerized with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to form injectable in situ cross-linkable hybrid cements. The hybrids were characterized in terms of their mechanical, rheological, handling and in vitro bioactive properties. The results indicated that hybridization improves the mechanical and bioactive properties of POSS and PEG. The Young moduli of the hybrids were lower than those of commercial cements and more similar to those of cancellous bone. Furthermore, the strength of the hybrids was similar to that of commercial cements. Calcium deficient hydroxyapatite grew on the surface of the hybrids after 28 days in PBS, indicating bioactivity. The study showed that PEG–POSS-based hybrid materials are a promising alternative to commercial bone cements.

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Acrylic bone cements have an elastic modulus several times higher than the surrounding trabecular bone. This has been hypothesized to contribute to certain clinical complications. There are indications that the addition of specific fatty acids and triglyceride oils may reduce the elastic modulus of these types of cements. Some of these additives also appear to have inherent antibiotic properties, although this has never been evaluated in bone cements. In this study, several types of fatty acids and triglyceride oils were evaluated for use in acrylic bone cements. Their mechanical properties were evaluated under uniaxial compression testing and selected cements were then further characterized in terms of microstructure, handling and antibacterial properties using scanning electron microscopy, polymerization temperature measurements, agar diffusion tests and bactericidal activity assays of cement extracts.It was found that any of the evaluated fatty acids or triglyceride oils could be used to tailor the stiffness of acrylic bone cements, although at varying concentrations, which also depended on the type of commercial base cement used. In particular, the addition 2 of very small amounts of linoleic acid (<2.0 wt%) resulted in Young's moduli and compressive strengths in the range of human trabecular bone, while maintaining a similar setting time. Further, the addition of 12.6 wt% ricinoleic acid to Osteopal V cement was found to have a significant antibacterial effect, inhibiting growth of Staphylococcus aureus in an agar diffusion test as well as demonstrating 100% bactericidal activity against the same strain.

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