Reduction in complement activation from biomaterials by removal of air nuclei from the surface roughness.

The activation of the rabbit complement system by each of three different synthetic materials is reported. Samples of each type of material were subjected to one of two different priming procedures. One priming procedure was intended to remove the air nuclei from the surface roughness of the materials; the other procedure was just the normal one. It was found that the removal of the air nuclei during priming reduced the complement activation by each of the two materials of lower surface tension, but not by a statistically significant amount for the material of highest surface tension, cellophane. For the denucleated samples of the three materials, the amount of complement activation was found to correlate with the critical surface tension of the materials; if the samples of the materials were normally primed, there was no correlation of the amount of complement activation with the critical surface tension of the material.