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External WebsitesPresident, Venables & Assoc. (aerospace materials consultants), Towson, Maryland. Author of numerous papers dealing with materials science.
John D. Venables , Diane S. KukichTechnical Writer and Editor, Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware, Newark. Editor of Spring 1989 CCM Research Reviews.
Diane S. Kukich • All Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
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Research on developing new biomaterials is an interdisciplinary effort, often involving collaboration among materials scientists and engineers, biomedical engineers, pathologists, and clinicians to solve clinical problems. The design or selection of a specific biomaterial depends on the relative importance of the various properties that are required for the intended medical application. Physical properties that are generally considered include hardness, tensile strength, modulus, and elongation; fatigue strength, which is determined by a material’s response to cyclic loads or strains; impact properties; resistance to abrasion and wear; long-term dimensional stability, which is described by a material’s viscoelastic properties; swelling in aqueous media; and permeability to gases, water, and small biomolecules. In addition, biomaterials are exposed to human tissues and fluids, so that predicting the results of possible interactions between host and material is an important and unique consideration in using synthetic materials in medicine. Two particularly important issues in biocompatibility are thrombosis, which involves blood coagulation and the adhesion of blood platelets to biomaterial surfaces, and the fibrous-tissue encapsulation of biomaterials that are implanted in soft tissues.
Poor selection of materials can lead to clinical problems. One example of this situation was the choice of silicone rubber as a poppet in an early heart valve design. The silicone absorbed lipid from plasma and swelled sufficiently to become trapped between the metal struts of the valve. Another unfortunate choice as a biomaterial was Teflon (trademark), which is noted for its low coefficient of friction and its chemical inertness but which has relatively poor abrasion resistance. Thus, as an occluder in a heart valve or as an acetabular cup in a hip-joint prosthesis, Teflon may eventually wear to such an extent that the device would fail. In addition, degradable polyesterurethane foam was abandoned as a fixation patch for breast prostheses, because it offered a distinct possibility for the release of carcinogenic by-products as it degraded.
Besides their constituent polymer molecules, synthetic biomaterials may contain several additives, such as unreacted monomers and catalysts, inorganic fillers or organic plasticizers, antioxidants and stabilizers, and processing lubricants or mold-release agents on the material’s surface. In addition, several degradation products may result from the processing, sterilization, storage, and ultimately implantation of a device. Many additives are beneficial—for example, the silica filler that is indispensable in silicone rubber for good mechanical performance or the antioxidants and stabilizers that prevent premature oxidative degradation of polyetherurethanes. Other additives, such as pigments, can be eliminated from biomedical products. Indeed, a “ medical-grade” biomaterial is one that has had nonessential additives and potential contaminants excluded or eliminated from the polymer. In order to achieve this grade, the polymer may need to be solvent-extracted before use, thereby eliminating low-molecular-weight materials. Generally, additives in polymers are regarded with extreme suspicion, because it is often the additives rather than the constituent polymer molecules that are the source of adverse biocompatibility.
The majority of biomaterials used in humans are synthetic polymers such as the polyurethanes or Dacron (trademark; chemical name polyethylene terephthalate), rather than polymers of biological origin such as proteins or polysaccharides. The properties of common synthetic biomaterials vary widely, from the soft and delicate water-absorbing hydrogels made into contact lenses to the resilient elastomers found in short- and long-term cardiovascular devices or the high-strength acrylics used in orthopedics and dentistry. The properties of any material are governed by its chemical composition and by the intra- and intermolecular forces that dictate its molecular organization. Macromolecular structure in turn affects macroscopic properties and, ultimately, the interfacial behaviour of the material in contact with blood or host tissues.
Since the properties of each material are dependent on the chemical structure and macromolecular organization of its polymer chains, an understanding of some common structural features of various polymers provides considerable insight into their properties. Compared with complex biological molecules, synthetic polymers are relatively simple; often they comprise only one type of repeating subunit, analogous to a polypeptide consisting of just one repeating amino acid. On the basis of common structures and properties, synthetic polymers are classified into one of three categories: elastomers, which include natural and synthetic rubbers; thermoplastics; and thermosets. The properties that provide the basis for this classification include molecular weight, cross-link density, percent crystallinity, thermal transition temperature, and bulk mechanical properties.
Elastomers, which include rubber materials, have found wide use as biomaterials in cardiovascular and soft-tissue applications owing to their high elasticity, impact resistance, and gas permeability. Applications of elastomers include flexible tubing for pacemaker leads, vascular grafts, and catheters; biocompatible coatings and pumping diaphragms for artificial hearts and left-ventricular assist devices; grafts for reconstructive surgery and maxillofacial operations; wound dressings; breast prostheses; and membranes for implantable biosensors.
Elastomers are typically amorphous with low cross-link density (although linear polyurethane block copolymers are an important exception). This gives them low to moderate modulus and tensile properties as well as high elasticity. For example, elastomeric devices can be extended by 100 to 1,000 percent of their initial dimensions without causing any permanent deformation to the material. Silicone rubbers such as Silastic (trademark), produced by the American manufacturer Dow Corning, Inc., are cross-linked, so that they cannot be melted or dissolved—although swelling may occur in the presence of a good solvent. Such properties contrast with those of the linear polyurethane elastomers, which consist of soft polyether amorphous segments and hard urethane-containing glassy or crystalline segments. The two segments are incompatible at room temperature and undergo microphase separation, forming hard domains dispersed in an amorphous matrix. A key feature of this macromolecular organization is that the hard domains serve as physical cross-links and reinforcing filler. This results in elastomeric materials that possess relatively high modulus and extraordinary long-term stability under sustained cyclic loading. In addition, they can be processed by methods common to thermoplastics.
Many common thermoplastics, such as polyethylene and polyester, are used as biomaterials. Thermoplastics usually exhibit moderate to high tensile strength (5 to 1,000 megapascals) with moderate elongation (2 to 100 percent), and they undergo plastic deformation at high strains. Thermoplastics consist of linear or branched polymer chains; consequently, most can undergo reversible melt-solid transformation on heating, which allows for relatively easy processing or reprocessing. Depending on the structure and molecular organization of the polymer chains, thermoplastics may be amorphous (e.g., polystyrene), semicrystalline (e.g., low-density polyethylene), or highly crystalline (e.g., high-density polyethylene), or they may be processed into highly crystalline textile fibres (e.g., polyester Dacron).
Some thermoplastic biomaterials, such as polylactic acid and polyglycolic acid, are polymers based on a repeating amino acid subunit. These polypeptides are biodegradable, and, along with biodegradable polyesters and polyorthoesters, they have applications in absorbable sutures and drug-release systems. The rate of biodegradation in the body can be adjusted by using copolymers. These are polymers that link two different monomer subunits into a single polymer chain. The resultant biomaterial exhibits properties, including biodegradation, that are intermediate between the two homopolymers.