Liu Songyun, Hall Deborah J, Della Valle Craig J, Walsh Michael J, Jacobs Joshua J, Pourzal Robin
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, United States.
Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Biotribology (Oxf). 2021 Jun;26. doi: 10.1016/j.biotri.2021.100163. Epub 2021 Feb 19.
Biotribology is one of the key branches in the field of artificial joint development. Wear and corrosion are among fundamental processes which cause material loss in a joint biotribological system; the characteristics of wear and corrosion debris are central to determining the bioreactivity. Much effort has been made elucidating the debris-induced tissue responses. However, due to the complexity of the biological environment of the artificial joint, as well as a lack of effective imaging tools, there is still very little understanding of the size, composition, and concentration of the particles needed to trigger adverse local tissue reactions, including periprosthetic osteolysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging (FTIR-I) provides fast biochemical composition analysis in the direct context of underlying physiological conditions with micron-level spatial resolution, and minimal additional sample preparation in conjunction with the standard histopathological analysis workflow. In this study, we have demonstrated that FTIR-I can be utilized to accurately identify fine polyethylene debris accumulation in macrophages that is not achievable using conventional or polarized light microscope with histological staining. Further, a major tribocorrosion product, chromium phosphate, can be characterized within its histological milieu, while simultaneously identifying the involved immune cell such as macrophages and lymphocytes. In addition, we have shown the different spectral features of particle-laden macrophages through image clustering analysis. The presence of particle composition variance inside macrophages could shed light on debris evolution after detachment from the implant surface. The success of applying FTIR-I in the characterization of prosthetic debris within their biological context may very well open a new avenue of research in the orthopedics community.
生物摩擦学是人工关节研发领域的关键分支之一。磨损和腐蚀是导致关节生物摩擦学系统中材料损失的基本过程；磨损和腐蚀碎片的特征对于确定生物反应性至关重要。人们在阐明碎片诱导的组织反应方面付出了很多努力。然而，由于人工关节生物环境的复杂性以及缺乏有效的成像工具，对于引发包括假体周围骨溶解在内的局部组织不良反应所需颗粒的大小、组成和浓度仍知之甚少。傅里叶变换红外光谱成像（FTIR-I）可在潜在生理条件的直接背景下以微米级空间分辨率提供快速生化成分分析，并且与标准组织病理学分析工作流程相结合时所需的额外样品制备最少。在本研究中，我们证明了FTIR-I可用于准确识别巨噬细胞中精细聚乙烯碎片的积累，这是使用传统或偏振光显微镜结合组织学染色无法实现的。此外，可以在其组织学环境中对一种主要的摩擦腐蚀产物磷酸铬进行表征，同时识别参与其中的免疫细胞，如巨噬细胞和淋巴细胞。此外，我们通过图像聚类分析展示了载有颗粒的巨噬细胞的不同光谱特征。巨噬细胞内颗粒成分差异的存在可能有助于揭示碎片从植入物表面脱离后的演变情况。将FTIR-I成功应用于在生物环境中表征假体碎片很可能为骨科领域开辟一条新的研究途径。
