Histopathological evaluation of polycaprolactone nanocomposite compared with tricalcium phosphate in bone healing
Published Online: Oct 23, 2018
Page range: 385 - 394
Received: Feb 01, 2018
Accepted: Sep 26, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2018-0055
Keywords
© 2018 H. Eftekhari et al. published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Introduction
In recent years, the use of bone scaffolds as bone tissue substitutes, especially the use of such as hydroxyapatite and tricalcium phosphate, has been very popular. Today, the use of modern engineering techniques and advances in nanotechnology have expanded the use of nanomaterials as bone scaffolds for bone tissue applications.
Material and Methods
This study was performed on 60 adult male New Zealand rabbits divided into four experimental groups: the control group without any treatment, the second group receiving hydroxyapatite, the third group treated with β-tricalcium phosphate, and the fourth group receiving nanocomposite polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold. In a surgical procedure, a defect 6 mm in diameter was made in a hind limb femur. Four indexes were used to assess histopathology, which were union index, spongiosa index, cortex index, and bone marrow.
Results
The results showed that nanocomposite PCL and control groups always had the respective highest and lowest values among all the groups at all time intervals. The histopathological assessment demonstrated that the quantity of newly formed lamellar bone in the nanocomposite PCL group was higher than in other groups.
Conclusion
All these data suggest that PCL had positive effects on the bone healing process, which could have great potential in tissue engineering and clinical applications.