Effect of surface texture on the soft tissue response to polymer implants.

The ion beam etching process produces micro hairlike filaments on PTFE without causing any chemical or physiochemical alterations to the material. Implantation of this textured material subcutaneously, altered the interfacial cells and the kinetics of fibrous capsule development. Interfacial cells associated with textured interfaces (shown to be monocytic phagocytes) display increases in adhesion, vacuolization, filopodia formation, cytoplasmic-to-nuclear ratio, metabolism, acid phosphatase activity, and increased FBGC formation. The fibrous capsule associated with textured implants is reduced in thickness at 8 weeks but is similar to smooth controls at later time periods. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the surface texture of an implant is a critical variable in determining the soft tissue response to a material.