Establishing a Murine Osteoporosis Protocol for Biomaterials Testing
Abstract
Osteoporosis is one of the most common disorders of bone metabolism, this being a condition that causes pain, frequently causing fractures, as a result of the reduction of bone mass and density. The purpose of this study is the establishment and testing of an experimental protocol to induce osteoporosis in laboratory rats by ovariectomy, at 9 months old. It is desirable that osteoporosis is successfully induced so that various biomaterials for treating pathologic bone healing can be further tested. For this study, 20 Sprague-Dawley rats were split into 2 groups of 10 individuals, which were then operated, while 10 were left as control. Clinical examination was performed each week, but mainly 4 months after surgery, biochemistry and osteodensitometry were determined by CT - scanning to compare the differences between the ovariectomized group and the control group. The rats were humanly euthanasied at 20 weeks post ovariectomy and histological analyses were performed. Biochemistry revealed that progesterone level was decreased by ~50%, calcium values were decreased, alkaline phosphatase was increased and the Ca:P ratio was also altered. Nevertheless, the analysis of bone density (BMD) revealed a decrease in the ovariectomized group compared with the control group and the histological analysis confirmed the induction of osteoporosis pathology. In conclusion, osteoporosis by means of estrogenic deficit, was successfully induced in 9-month-old Sprague-Dawley rats.
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