With the increasing elderly population an increase in the number of bony fractures associated toage-related diseases such as osteoporosis also follows. The relatively high stiffness of the acrylicbone cements used in these patients has been suggested to give raise to a suboptimal loaddistribution surrounding the cementin vivo, and hence contribute to clinical complications, such asadditional fractures. The aim of this study was to develop a low-modulus bone cement, based oncurrently used, commercially available poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) cements forvertebroplasty. To this end, acrylate end-functionalized oligo(trimethylene carbonate) (oTMC) wasincorporated into the cements, and the resulting compressive mechanical properties wereevaluated, as well as the cytotoxic and handling properties of selected formulations. Sixteenwt%oTMC was needed in the vertebroplastic cement Osteopal V to achieve an elastic modulus of1063 MPa (SD 74), which gave a corresponding compressive strength of 46.1 MPa (SD 1.9). Cementextracts taken at 1 and 12 hours gave a reduced MG-63 cell viability in most cases, while extractstaken at 24 hours had no significant effect on cell behavior. The modification also gave an increasein setting time, from 14.7 min (SD 1.7) to 18.0 min (SD 0.9), and a decrease in maximumpolymerization temperature, from 41.5C (SD 3.4) to 30.7C (SD 1.4). While further evaluation ofother relevant properties, such as injectability andin vivobiocompatibility, remains to be done, theresults presented herein are promising in terms of approaching clinically applicable bone cementswith a lower stiffness.
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