Adjustable Stiffness, External Fixator for the Rat Femur Osteotomy and Segmental Bone Defect Models
Adjustable Stiffness, External Fixator for the Rat Femur Osteotomy and Segmental Bone Defect Models
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DOI：
10.3791/51558
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发表时间：
2014-10-01
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
Matthys, Romano
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Glatt, Vaida;Matthys, Romano
骨折愈合周围的力学环境是非常重要的，因为它决定了骨折愈合的方式。在过去的十年里，通过改变损伤周围的固定稳定性来改变力学环境来改善骨愈合一直是临床上非常感兴趣的事情。临床前动物研究在这一领域的一个限制是缺乏对大型节段缺损处的局部机械环境的实验控制，以及在愈合时的截骨手术。在本文中，我们报告了一种外固定器的设计和使用，以研究大型节段性骨缺损或截骨术的愈合情况。这种装置不仅允许在骨损伤愈合时控制其轴向硬度，而且还能够在体内愈合过程中改变硬度。所进行的实验表明，在不受限制的笼子活动中，固定器能够在体内保持大鼠股骨5 mm的缺损区，至少8周。同样，在整个愈合过程中，我们没有观察到扭曲或感染，包括针感染。这些结果表明，我们研制的外固定器能够实现可重复性和标准化的稳定，并能改变大鼠在体骨缺损和不同大小截骨术的力学环境。这证实了外固定装置非常适合于在骨再生和修复领域使用大鼠模型进行临床前研究。
The mechanical environment around the healing of broken bone is very important as it determines the way the fracture will heal. Over the past decade there has been great clinical interest in improving bone healing by altering the mechanical environment through the fixation stability around the lesion. One constraint of preclinical animal research in this area is the lack of experimental control over the local mechanical environment within a large segmental defect as well as osteotomies as they heal. In this paper we report on the design and use of an external fixator to study the healing of large segmental bone defects or osteotomies. This device not only allows for controlled axial stiffness on the bone lesion as it heals, but it also enables the change of stiffness during the healing process in vivo. The conducted experiments have shown that the fixators were able to maintain a 5 mm femoral defect gap in rats in vivo during unrestricted cage activity for at least 8 weeks. Likewise, we observed no distortion or infections, including pin infections during the entire healing period. These results demonstrate that our newly developed external fixator was able to achieve reproducible and standardized stabilization, and the alteration of the mechanical environment of in vivo rat large bone defects and various size osteotomies. This confirms that the external fixation device is well suited for preclinical research investigations using a rat model in the field of bone regeneration and repair.