Epidemiologic and clinical studies have documented the high prevalence of ligamentus tissue injury among athletes and other individuals engaged in various sporting activities. Treatment of these injuries by augmenting or replacing injured tissue with other tissue from the body have not been successful. For this reason, attention has been shifted to development of prosthetic ligaments. A potential candidate for prosthesis is the carbon fiber. However, little information is available upon which to design advanced waves of fibers to insure adequate scaffolding for cells and deposition of connective tissue which would permit prosthesis stress-strain behavior similar to the intact human ligament. This project is designed to evaluate the efficacy of carbon fibers of various configurations to act as a tissue scaffold when used as a prosthetic ligament. In-vitro fibroblast cell cultures co-cultivated with the carbon fibers will be examined at various times by light and scanning electron microscopy in order to determine fibroblast adherence as a function of the surface characteristics of the fibers. The assays described in this proposal will provide important information which will allow the choice of type of carbon fiber configuration to be used for the prosthesis. The appropriate carbon fiber structure can lead to a greater probability of early replacement by adequate amounts of connective tissue with restoration of the original ligamental function.
