Cell culture methods to evaluate the biocompatibility of implant materials

By Ciapetti, G. - Cenni, E. - Cavedagna, D. - Pratelli, L. - Pizzoferrato, A.

Cell culture techniques are usually used in the field of biomaterials research and development in order to detect toxic components. Morphological assays are the most widely used methods and give the very first information about the biological compatibility of materials. Cell function assays give more quantitative data, but the comparison of data between different laboratories is difficult. Some of the cell culture methods that are used for biocompatibility studies are described briefly here, and results from our laboratory are reported. Despite some inherent limitations of the cell culture techniques, they are an accurate and reliable method of predicting the biological compatibility of materials to be implanted in vivo.