Knee Joint Ligament Implants with Composite Nanocoatings

Abstract

A method for making knee joint ligament implants based on synthetic constructs manufactured from polyethylene terephthalate fibers with composite nanocoatings was developed. Coatings consisted of aqueous dispersions of multiwalled (MWNT) and single-walled (SWNT) carbon nanotubes and were applied to synthetic fibers using ultrasound and then fixed by laser evaporation. The SWNT-based composite nanocoating had a pore diameter of 10-20 nm, compared with 40-60 nm for the MWNT-based coating. In vitro studies of the proliferative activity of human fibroblasts (HFb) during colonization on the surface and between the synthetic fibers were performed. The greatest level of HFb proliferation was seen on synthetic constructs with composite nanocoatings based on MWNT with large pore size, at 55,435 cells, as compared with SWNT-based coatings (54,931 cells) and the control sample (54,715 cells), as assessed by fluorescence microscopy and the MTT test.