Biocompatibilidade in vivo de cartilagens elásticas tratadas em solução alcalina

Abstract

Although the use of elastic cartilage of animal origin, as xenograft, is known in the veterinary routine, its properties and the reactions that provoke in the organism of the animal are still little known, especially when treated in alkaline solution. Knowledge of these particularities may allow greater safety in the development of new biomaterials for routine human and veterinary clinical and surgical procedures. Thus, the main objective of this study was to analyze the biocompatibility between bovine elastic cartilage treated with alkaline solution and untreated cartilage implanted in Wistar rats. Cartilages were obtained from bovine ears and half of them were treated in alkaline solution and the other half were not treated. Regardless of the treatment, the cartilages were sterilized in ethylene oxide. Cartilages were implanted in the subcutaneous region of the dorsal region, between the scapulae in rats (N = 50), and SG (N = 25) received treated cartilages and CG (N = 25) received untreated cartilages. Five animals from each group were euthanized on days 3, 7, 14, 21 and 42 and the macroscopic characteristics triggered by the implant were evaluated and staged as fibroses, clots and infections. Histopathological evaluations were performed to verify the tissue reaction, qualifying and quantifying the inflammatory process. The results show that SG has a smaller amount of inflammatory infiltrate and better organization of the connective tissue in relation to CG. Cartilage degradation patterns in SG showed a decrease in the cartilage matrix in relation to CG and there was no significant difference in the neovascularization process between the groups. It was concluded that the alkaline treatment provided better biocompatibility for the elastic cartilage when implanted in the subcutaneous of rats.