Flow cytometry for assessing biocompatibility.

Flow cytometry (FCM) was examined as a possible procedure for measuring in vitro the biocompatibility of implant materials for orthopedic and dental surgery. The human osteoblast-like cell line MG63 was grown on hydroxyapatite (HA) and P2O5 glass-reinforced HA composite discs and compared with the same cells grown on polystyrene culture dishes. While morphological observation at the light and electron microscopic levels showed no major deleterious effects, FCM indicated that cell size was somewhat reduced, particularly by growth on the HA composite. Morever, this material also appeared to delay the progression of the cells from the G0/G1 into the S phase of the cell cycle. In addition to this low level of inhibition of cell growth relative to control cultures, FCM analysis also demonstrated that the glass-reinforced HA caused some down-regulation of the expression of osteocalcin and fibronectin, two antigens which play a vital part in the integrity and function of bone and soft connective tissue, respectively. These results thus show, first, that although HA and the HA composite used in these experiments were generally biocompatible, they nevertheless had certain suboptimal effects on the cells; and second, that FCM could be a highly useful procedure for effectively screening and evaluating important biological responses to implant materials.