2022, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (28): 4581-4586

Influence of inorganic nano-fillers on the biocompatibility of implanted silicone rubber

Tian Youjing1, Shi Shuping2, Wu Xing1   

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Silicone rubber is a common biological material for surgical repair and reconstruction of human tissues and organs. Due to the shortcomings of silicone rubber’s own biocompatibility, inorganic nano-fillers provide new opportunities for the biocompatibility improvement of implanted silicone rubber and the construction of composite materials with specific functions.
OBJECTIVE: To review the achievements and deficiencies in the research on biocompatibility of implanted silicone rubber by adding inorganic nano-fillers.
METHODS: To enter the keywords “siloxane, silicone rubber, inorganic nano-filler, metal nano-filler, metal oxide nano-filler, carbon nanoparticles” on English biomedical databases PubMed, Web of Science and Medline, and those in Chinese with same meaning as English on Chinese databases Wanfang, CNKI and VIP, to harvest the related articles on inorganic nano-filler modified silicone rubber. The time span was from January 2014 to October 2020 .
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Metal and their oxide nanoparticles as well as new carbon nano-fillers can improve the biocompatibility of the implanted silicone rubber by body or surface modification, which have a positive impact in the aspects of cell growth, anticoagulation, surface properties, mechanical properties, durability, anti-infective functionalization and so on. In the future, it is necessary to study the mechanism of cell proliferation and migration caused by different nano-fillers on the surface properties of silicone rubber, such as topological structure, charge, and wettability, the regulation strategies and planting of nano-metal bactericides to control the release of cations on the surface of silicone rubber, also the potential nano-toxicity after being implanted.
Key words: silicone rubber, inorganic nano-filler, nano metal, nano metal oxide, nano carbon, carbon ion, carbon nanotube, graphene