Adhesion of soluble fibronectin, vitronectin, and collagen type IV to intraocular lens materials.

Purpose: To evaluate soluble fibronectin, vitronectin, and collagen type IV adhesion to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), fluorine-surface-modified PMMA, silicone, hydrophobic and hydrophilic acrylate, and hydrogel intraocular lenses (IOLs) and determine whether hydrophobic and hydrophilic acrylate materials have different fibronectin-adhesion properties.

Setting: Department of Medical Biochemistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.

Methods: One hundred fifty IOLs were incubated for 1 week at 37 degrees C with radioactive-iodine-labeled soluble fibronectin, vitronectin, or collagen type IV. Fifty IOLs were analyzed for each protein, 5 from each of 10 different IOL models (PMMA, Alcon MC60BM; fluorine-surface-modified PMMA, Chiron Fluorilens Centra-55F; silicone, Allergan Medical Optics SI-40NB and Pharmacia and Upjohn CeeOn 911A; hydrophobic soft acrylate, Alcon AcrySof MA60BM and SA30AL and AMO Sensar; hydrophilic soft acrylate, Ioltech Stabibag and Bausch and Lomb BL27; and hydrogel, Bausch and Lomb Hydroview. The amount of adherent protein was measured with a gamma counter at 1 and 7 days and expressed as counts per minute.

Results: At 1 week, significantly more fibronectin was bound to the hydrophobic acrylate IOLs than to the 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) containing hydrophilic acrylate IOLs (P <.05 to.0001). Significantly more vitronectin was bound to the 2 silicone IOLs than to any other IOL (P <.01 to.0001) at 7 days. Collagen type IV adhered best to the hydrophilic acrylate IOLs, which were significantly different (P <.01 to.0001) than the other IOLs at 1 and 7 days.

Conclusions: Each IOL material had a different affinity to each protein. Significant binding to 1 protein does not indicate that the IOL will bind significantly to all proteins; instead, each protein should be studied separately. Fibronectin bound significantly better to hydrophobic acrylate IOLs than to hydrophilic acrylate IOLs, suggesting that the HEMA-containing IOLs should be classified with the hydrogel IOL group.