The design paradigm of biomaterials has been changed to ones with favorable immunomodulatory effects, indicating the importance of accurately evaluating the immunomodulatory properties of biomaterials. Among all the immune cells macrophages receive most attention, due to their plasticity and multiple roles in the materials and host interactions, and thereby become model immune cells for the evaluation of immunomodulatory properties of biomaterials in many studies. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), a polysaccharide in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, elicit strong immune responses, which was often applied to activate macrophages, resulting in a proinflammatory M1 phenotype, and the release of proinflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), interleukin (IL)-1, and IL-6. However, there is no consensus on how to apply macrophages and LPS to detect the immunomodulatory properties of biomaterials. The lack of scientific consideration of this issue has led to some inaccurate and insufficient conclusions on the immunomodulatory properties of biomaterials, and inconsistences between different research groups. In this study, we carried out a systemic study to investigate the stimulatory effects of LPS with different times, doses, and conditions on the activation of macrophages. An experimental pathway was proposed accordingly for the activation of macrophages using LPS for assessing the immunomodulatory property of biomaterials.
Keywords: bone biomaterials; immunomodulation; macrophages.