Toward the Improvement of the Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Braided Ligament for ACL Reconstruction: A “Carrot and Stick” Strategy

Abstract

Bone tunnel enlargement has been troubling the clinical adoption of braided artificial ligaments for decades, to which mechanical and tribological performance promotion shall be an effective and promising approach. Herein, a “carrot and stick” strategy has been introduced with two types of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers to fabricate hybrid textures, which is expected to advance fatigue and tribological performance without yielding essential mechanical strength and biocompatibility. Owing to advancements in such a “carrot and stick” strategy, the obtained grafts present three promising properties: i) enhancement of mechanical strength; ii) COF reduction of 25% at the greatest extent, thus lowering the risk of bone tunnel enlargement; iii) final displacement shrinkage of graft length after cyclic loadings, favored in the clinic for isometric reconstruction. The results obtained in this study show that the “carrot and stick” strategy can be a creative and convenient method to optimize the service life, saving the complication rate of artificial ligaments for clinical applications.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Phytic Acid-Gallium Network on a Polyimide Fiber Woven Fabric as an Artificial Ligament for Boosting Ligament–Bone Healing and Infection Treatment

“…The clinical application of artificial ligaments currently centers on a poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fiber woven fabric, which is renowned for its exceptional biocompatibility and mechanical properties . However, the significant limitation of PET-based artificial ligament lies in the lack of osteogenic activity, preventing the crucial induction of osteogenesis within the bone tunnel that is vital for ligament–bone healing, which ultimately leads to implant loosening as well as surgical failure . Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop a new generation artificial ligament that possesses superior osteogenic activity as well as excellent mechanical properties.…”