The Blood Bank, Landspitali University Hospital, Snorrabraut 60, Reykjavik 105, Iceland.
Acta Biomater. 2013 Jan;9(1):4771-8. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2012.08.043. Epub 2012 Sep 2.
Biomaterials research has been expanding over the last decade, in part to provide improved medical devices for the treatment of orthopedic tissue injuries. In the quest to provide the best performance combined with low cost for medical implants, an increasing number of non-chemists have entered the field of biomaterials research without the profound knowledge of chemistry needed to understand the complex interaction mechanisms and characteristics of natural substances. Likewise, non-biologists often lack understanding when it comes to the presence of the contaminating biota frequently found in natural substances. This lack of knowledge by researchers in the field, combined with sensitive in vitro cell-based assays, can lead to inaccurate evaluation of biomaterials. Hence, there should be both an active effort to assemble multi-disciplinary teams and a genuine concern for the possible effects of contamination on in vitro assays. Here, we show that the presence of bacterial endotoxins in chitosan derivatives can result in false-positive results, profoundly altering product performance in in vitro assays. False-positive results through uncritical use of natural substances in vitro can be avoided by proper endotoxin testing and careful evaluation of cytokine secretion patterns.
在过去的十年中，生物材料研究一直在不断发展，部分原因是为了提供更好的医疗设备来治疗骨科组织损伤。为了在提供最佳性能的同时降低医疗植入物的成本，越来越多的非化学家进入生物材料研究领域，而他们缺乏理解天然物质复杂相互作用机制和特性所需的深厚化学知识。同样，非生物学家在遇到天然物质中经常存在的污染生物群时，往往也缺乏了解。由于该领域的研究人员缺乏知识，再加上基于细胞的体外敏感检测，可能会导致对生物材料的不准确评估。因此，应该积极组建多学科团队，并真正关注污染对体外检测可能产生的影响。在这里，我们表明壳聚糖衍生物中细菌内毒素的存在会导致假阳性结果，从而深刻改变体外检测中产品的性能。通过正确的内毒素检测和仔细评估细胞因子分泌模式，可以避免在体外使用天然物质时出现假阳性结果。
