Progress in Biomaterials: Celebrating the 100th Volume of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research- Virtual Issue

This pioneering contribution by Fred Leonard and colleagues was the first manuscript published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. After a 30-40 year hiatus, these materials have finally achieved clinical application. These materials were utilized by the Army Medical Corps in Vietnam to treat acute trauma. Perhaps one of the reasons for not achieving widespread clinical use is related to the in vivo biocompatibility studies. Anecdotally, as told to James M. Anderson by Fred Leonard, there was an attempt to determine in vivo biocompatibility by implanting these materials that had been prepared using radiolabelled monomers. In attempting to determine the histological characteristics, the findings demonstrated adverse tissue responses, which were later attributed to the effect of radiation as opposed to biodegradation, which was a useful characteristic of these materials. This wrong interpretation of the findings due to the dual use manner of determining biocompatibility and biodegradation is a lesson to biomaterials scientists attempting to minimize the use of animals in in vivo studies and subsequently suggests caution and the proper selection of tests to simultaneously determine biodegradation and biocompatibility.