Analyte flux through chronically implanted subcutaneous polyamide membranes differs in humans and rats

Departments of 1 Biomedical Engineering and 4 Plastic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27710; 2 Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm S-17177; and 3 Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm S-18288, Sweden The rat is commonly used to evaluate physiological responses of subcutaneous tissue to implanted devices. In vivo longevity of various devices and the biocompatibility of biomaterials depend on how adjacent tissue interacts. How closely the rat model predicts the human response has not been well characterized. The objective of this study was to compare rat and human subcutaneous foreign body responses by monitoring the biochemical environment at a polymer-tissue interface over 8 days using microdialysis. Polyamide microdialysis probes were implanted subcutaneously in humans and rats ( n = 12). Daily microdialysis samples were analyzed for glucose, lactate, pyruvate, glycerol, and urea. Blood glucose was also monitored. Analyte concentrations differed significantly between rats and humans at the implant-tissue interface. There were also qualitative differences in the 8-day trends. For example, over 8 days, microdialysate glucose increased two- to fourfold in humans but decreased in rats ( P