[Experimental implantation of hydrogel into bone].
In spite of the rapid development of various natural and artifical implants of bone tissue, bones or whole joints, no material was found as yet which would maximally resemble the structure of the bone tissue and would also be maximally compatible. The present study deals with the application possibilities of unsoluble hydrophilic gels (hydrogels) as substitutes of bone tissue in experiment. The study concerns above all their biocompatibility with regard to the porous qualities of the implant and to its chemical structure, and evaluates their behaviour in the spongious and compact bone. It was used polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate (polyHEMA) which is crossling with small amount of glycoldimethacrylate when by changing of ratio monomer: water is possible obtain from homogeneous to macroporous structure of polymers. The macroporous structure was increased and the surface of the macroporous structure of polymers. The macroporous structure was increased and the surface of the macroporous, sinterted HEMA modified and implanted. The so-called double porosity was thus obtained. The implants were prepared in the form of cylinders (3.5 mm in diameter) in 8 different modifications and surgically implanted into the subtrochanteric and supracondylic part of the rabbit femurs. 42 animals were operated on. The obtained preparations were then evaluated macroscopically, and histologically processed in half-thin cuts (3-4 micrones). 124 samples were thus obtained. Some samples were radiographically contrasting. The rabbits were killed at intervals from 1-6 months, i.e. 32-193 days. It was found that the hydrogels modifications used in the experiment are biocompatible, their compatibility increasing in dependence on the increasing porosity. The non-porous and microporous hydrogels are not compatible and are damarked. The sintered macroporous gel is surrounded by a thin fibrine membrane signifying a high degree of compatibility with the bone tissue. By adding metacrylate acid to the hydrogel, the adhesivity of the macrophages increases markedly. There also appears the destruction of the polymer, marked, above all, in the spongious bone. The gel is actively degraded in the marrow, although the direct phagocytosis can be proved. At degradation of the implant in the compact bone the activity of the macrophages is belated; at application of the gel without methacrylate acid it does not occur even after 193 days and the implant is pervaded only by the bone beams. When adding methacrylate acid to the polymer degradation occurs, in which process there play also an active role the blood vessels pervading the site of the gel implantation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)