Isolation of serum protein organometallic corrosion products from 316LSS and HS-21 in vitro and in vivo.

An investigation into blood-borne organometallic compounds that arise from the corrosion of metals used in orthopedic prosthetic devices was conducted using an in vivo rat model with an implantation time of 10 days and an in vitro human serum model with an incubation time of 5 days. Both models involved 316LSS and HS-21 in the spherical powder form of 55 +/- 5 microns microns in diameter at three different surface areas to body weight ratios. Gel chromatography on cross-linked dextran (G-200) was used to fractionate the serum proteins which bound the metal ions (chromium, cobalt, and nickel) released and identify them. Atomic absorption-spectrophotometry analysis measured the concentration of the metal ions in each serum protein peak as well as whole serum from both models, and red cell and tissue from the in vivo model. Within the serum proteins, the metal ions were bound to two of the principal serum protein peaks. Similar distributions of the metals among the serum protein peaks were not noted.