Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Use of materials science in knee ligament repair is an important part of tissue engineering, and the immunological properties of materials can induce the biocompatibility problems between the materials and human, which is the key to successful repair.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the biocompatibility of graft materials with human being from the view of the immunological properties of knee ligament graft materials.
METHODS: A computer-based search of PubMed, VIP and Wanfang databases (1990-01/2012-01) was performed to retrieve articles about ligament injury treatment and immunological properties of graft materials. The keywords were “knee, ligament, material, performance” in Chinese and English. Repetitive articles, reviews and Meta analysis were excluded, and finally 22 articles were included in result analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Knee ligament graft materials have experienced a complex and lengthy research process. Good biocompatibility of graft materials (autologous grafts, allografts and synthetic materials) is the key to the successful repair. Xenograft and synthetic materials have been limited due to immune rejection, and currently, this problem is solved through physical or chemical modification to reduce the immune rejection. Therefore, we should pay attention to the immunological properties of graft materials that are the foundation and key link for ideal tissue engineering ligament graft materials in the future.