In vitro fibroblast seeding of prosthetic anterior cruciate ligaments

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of in vitro seeding of fibroblasts on the connective tissue encapsulation of implanted ligament prostheses, canine skin fibroblasts were grown in tissue culture and seeded onto knitted Dacron prostheses. When the cells on the prostheses reached contact growth inhibition, as determined by growth curves, the prostheses were implanted into the dogs' knees as ACL replacements. Gross and histologic eval uation at 4 and 8 weeks revealed that the seeded prostheses consistently showed more uniform and abundant encapsulation with connective tissue than did the control (unseeded) prostheses. The giant cell re sponse observed in the tissue surrounding the un seeded prostheses was not noted in the seeded pros theses. This may be because seeding a prosthesis with fibroblasts prior to implantation "walls off" the prosthe sis from the environment of the joint, and therefore the prosthesis may not elicit as great a foreign body re sponse as does an unseeded prosthesis. The results of this preliminary study suggest that the in vitro seed ing of a ligament prosthesis with fibroblasts accelerates the connective tissue encapsulation of the implanted prosthesis.