Study on biocompatibility, tribological property and wear debris characterization of ultra-low-wear polyethylene as artificial joint materials

Ultra-low-wear polyethylene (ULWPE) is a new type polyethylene made by experts who are from China petrochemical research institute, which is easy to process and implant. Preliminary test showed it was more resistant to wear than that of Ultra-high-molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). The purpose of the research is to study biocompatibility, bio-tribological properties and debris characterization of ULWPE. Cytotoxicity test, hemolysis test, acute/chronic toxicity and muscular implantation test were conducted according to national standard GB/T-16886/ISO-10993 for evaluation requirements of medical surgical implants. We obtained that this novel material had good biocompatibility and biological safety. The wear performance of ULWPE and UHMWPE was evaluated in a pin-on-disc (POD) wear tester within two million cycles and a knee wear simulator within six million cycles. We found that the ULWPE was higher abrasion resistance than the UHMWPE, the wear rate of ULWPE by POD test and knee wear simulator was 0.4 mg/106cycles and (16.9 ± 1.8)mg/106cycles respectively, while that of UHMWPE was 1.8 mg/106cycles and (24.6 ± 2.4)mg/106cycles. The morphology of wear debris is also an important factor to evaluate artificial joint materials, this study showed that the ULWPE wear debris gotten from the simulator had various different shapes, including spherical, block, tear, etc. The morphology of worn surface and wear debris analysis showed that wear mechanisms of ULWPE were adhesion wear, abrasive wear and fatigue wear and other wear forms, which were consistent with that of UHMWPE. Thus we conclude that ULWPE is expected to be a lifetime implantation of artificial joint.