IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Biomaterials Thursday Sessions
       Session BI-ThM

Paper BI-ThM11
The Role of Protein-surface Interactions in Implanted Joints

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 11:40 am, Room 102

Session: Protein Surface Interaction
Presenter: N.D. Spencer, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland
Authors: M.R. Widmer, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland
M. Heuberger, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland
J. Voros, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland
N.D. Spencer, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland
Correspondent: Click to Email
Proteins appear to play an important role in the boundary lubrication of both natural and implanted hip and knee joints. However, the nature of the interaction of proteins in synovial fluid with the prosthetic tribosurface appears to influence the effectiveness of boundary lubrication significantly. Protein adsorption (waveguide and fluorescence experiments) and tribological (pin-on-disk) studies have been carried out on a number of polymer and model surfaces in order to determine the tribological role and nature of such interactions.