Distribution patterns of the membrane glycoprotein CD44 during the foreign-body reaction to a degradable biomaterial in rats and mice

Although biomaterials have been used in the clinical setting for a long time, little is known of the molecular mechanisms underlying the foreign-body reaction (FBR). A good understanding of these mechanisms is requisite for the controlled regulation of the FBR needed to prevent adverse tissue reactions and thus to improve the function of the biomaterial. Macrophages are essential in the inflammatory reaction in, as well as around, the implants, and they also are believed to initiate most of the adverse responses. Typically, during the FBR macrophages become activated and fuse into multinucleated giant cells (MnGCs). CD44, an integral membrane glycoprotein expressed on a broad spectrum of cell types, is involved in MnGC formation in vitro and in inflammation processes in general. In vivo it is not known whether CD44 is part of a specific protein machinery that enables macrophage fusion or whether it has additional functions in the FBR. In the present in vivo study, CD44 expression patterns were followed in rats and mice during the FBR to a degradable collagen type I biomaterial. We found that CD44 is upregulated on all migrating cells and on newly formed blood vessels at the onset of the FBR and that MnGCs, up to week 15 postimplantation, expressed CD44. Although no evidence was found that CD44 participates in macrophage fusion leading to multinucleation, it nevertheless may be an interesting target molecule for modulating the FBR in vivo, possibly by affecting cell activation, cell migration towards the biomaterial, vascularization, and MnGC formation. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.