In Vivo Biocompatibility Studies: Perspectives on the Evaluation of Biomedical Polymer Biocompatibility

Abstract

The term “Biocompatibility” is commonly used to provide an indication of the host and material responses which occur in the specific application of a given material. Biocompatibility has recently been addressed from the issue of biocompatibility is that a given material performs satisfactorily in the biological application under consideration (1). The following definitions have been suggested by Black and provide a basis for our discussion of the biocompatibility of biomedical polymers. Biocompatibility is the biological performance of a given polymer in a specific application that is judged suitable to that situation. Biological performance is the interaction between a polymer and a living system. The two aspects of this performance are the host response which is the local and systemic response, other than the intended therapeutic response, of living systems to the polymer, and the material response which is the response of the polymer to living systems. The level of host (or polymer) response is the nature of the host (or polymer) response in a standard test with respect to the response obtained with a reference polymer. A polymer that, by standard test, has been determined to elicit a reproducible, quantifiable host or polymer response can be considered to be a reference or control polymer.