Ps. Landry et al., BONE INJURY RESPONSE - AN ANIMAL-MODEL FOR TESTING THEORIES OF REGULATION, Clinical orthopaedics and related research, (332), 1996, pp. 260-273
Therapeutic treatment of bone disease and attempts to accelerate norma
l healing require knowledge of the soluble factors that control bone r
epair and the specific effects that they produce. To facilitate study
of this regulatory system, an animal model involving creation of a hol
e in the cortex of the rat tibia was developed, Proliferation, differe
ntiation, and callus formation at the injury site were measured more p
recisely than in previous animal models by means of autoradiographic,
histologic, histochemical, and morphometric methods. Several novel fea
tures of bone healing were observed, including the following: (1) synt
hesis of bone matrix in the defect occurred only after a cambial compa
rtment was established by regeneration of the fibrous periosteum and (
2) at least 3 kinds of osteoblasts could be distinguished depending on
when and where deposited calcifiable matrix, The model is well suited
to evaluating the use of interventional strategies that involve chemi
cal or electrical agents because the cellular parameters of interest c
an be measured precisely.