Abstract:

Objective  To study the biological properties of 1-ethyl-3-3-dimethyl-aminopropylcarbodiimide hydrochloride（EDC）cross-linking xenogeneic（porcine） acellular  tendon（EPAT） as biological scaffold materials for tendon grafting.   Methods   The fresh porcine tendons were treated with trypsin and Triton X-100 to remove all cell components, then crosslinked with EDC. The features of histomorphology，biomechanics, degradation，immunogenicity and cell biocompatibility were assayed and compared with fresh tendon, freezed tendon and acellular tendon. Results Immunogenicity of EPAT declined significantly, conversely, biomechanics, degradation and cell biocompatibility of EPAT were not statistically significant compared with freezed tendon and acellular tendon. The biocompatibility in vitro had no difference among different treated materials.  Conclusions   EPAT could be the promising tendon graft for its optimal biological properties.

Key words: Tendon, Porcine, EDC, Biological properties