Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Bioactive glass is a kind of biomedical materials with good bioactivity and bone repair properties, its combination with blood, demineralized bone matrix or bone morphogenetic protein could promote bone formation and increase strength, bone healing is close to natural bone structure.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of bioactive glass combined with transfected basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) for repairing bony defects in rabbits.
METHODS: Tissue engineering bone was in vitro prepared with bioactive glass serving as an adsorbable carrier for transfected bFGF and BMSCs. The tissue engineered bone was implanted into 10-mm bone defects in middle radius of adult rabbits, while bioglass/BMSCs, autograft implantation and blank control with no graft were used as controls. The animals were sacrificed on 2, 4, 8, 12 weeks after operation. The bone repair was investigated using imaging, histological slice and biomechanical test methods.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: With bioactive glass serving as an adsorbable carrier for transfected bFGF and BMSCs, the tissue engineered bone constructed in vitro were implanted into radial defects of rabbits, the bone formation and anti-torsional strength after bone healing were significantly better than other groups (P < 0.01). Tissue engineering bone can efficiently repair bony defects, and is superior to autograft implantation.