Search

Many wounds to both soft and hard tissues heal via the formation of a granulation tissue bed. This bed is supportive of neoangiogenesis and releases proangiogenic, migratory, and proliferative growth factors and cytokines. In this study granulation tissue was grown on an intraperitoneal implant (4 mm diameter, 20 mm length) in a sheep. After 2 weeks, this implant was removed and transplanted into a femoral bone defect (4 mm diameter, 20 mm length). The sheep were sacrificed after 3 months, and the implant site examined using micro-CT and histology. A bone plaque formed adjacent to the implant, only in the presence of the peritoneal granulation tissue. This suggests that the formation of granulation tissue is a relatively conserved response at various locations in the body and its transplantation from one location to another can be used to induce tissue healing. This technique may prove useful as a method of improving physiological response to biomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates in vitro the hypothesis that the frequency profile of ultrasound reflections may be used to characterize degradation and osteoarthritic progression in articular cartilage, irrespective of the effects of transducer orientation. To this end, ultrasound echoes were taken in the time domain from the articular surface and osteochondral junction of normal, collagen meshwork-disrupted, proteoglycan-depleted, and osteoarthritic samples, converted to the frequency domain by fast Fourier transform and analyzed. Our results show the significant effects of specific enzymatic degradation programs on the ultrasound frequency profile of reflections from the cartilage surface and osteochondral junction, and their manifestation in the tissue surrounding a focal osteoarthritic defect. Collagen meshwork disruption was most apparent in the profile of reflections from the articular surface, while proteoglycan depletion was most clearly observed in the reflections from the osteochondral junction. The reflected signals from the osteochondral junction may further contain information about the subchondral bone. From these results we proposed that the analysis of specific frequencies of reflected ultrasound signals has the potential to differentiate normal from degraded articular cartilage-on-bone, when the angle of incidence can be controlled within a ±1.2° limit. This encourages further research into the effects of progressive artificial degradation of the cartilage matrix and subchondral bone on the spectral profile to quantify the relationship between the frequency profile and the level of specific degradation in naturally degraded joints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the controversy of the clinical use of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment to stimulate fracture healing and bone regeneration, we have analyzed the effects of daily exposure to HBO on the proliferation and differentiation of human osteoblasts in vitro. HBO stimulated proliferation when osteoblasts were cultured in 10% fetal calf serum (FCS), whereas an inhibitory effect of HBO was observed when cultures were supplemented with 2% FCS. On the other hand, HBO enhanced biomineralization with an increase in bone nodule formation, calcium deposition, and alkaline phosphatase activity, whereas no cytotoxic effect was detected using a lactate dehydrogenase activity assay. The data suggest that the exposure of osteoblasts to HBO enhances differentiation toward the osteogenic phenotype, providing cellular evidence of the potential application of HBO in fracture healing and bone regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the motivation and preliminary investigations into a novel method of characterizing cartilage health for potential in vivo application. Current in vivo indentation techniques, which primarily rely on stiffness measurements based on axial data, are unable to adequately distinguish between healthy and degraded tissue. The present in vitro study investigates the effects of controlled artificial degradation on the effective surface stretch, comparing the results with those obtained from the peripheral cartilage surrounding focal osteoarthritis. Results suggest that this technique is highly sensitive, showing a maximum range of 14% effective surface stretch in a normal joint compared with 42% for axial strain measurements. We further demonstrated that the technique can discriminate between degenerative changes and the intrinsic variations in cartilage properties across the normal joint. From these investigations we propose that the relationship between indentation and the in-plane strain field under the indenter can better distinguish degraded tissue than the currently used stiffness techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biological and embryological bone induction from epithelial-mesenchymal cell interactions has been noticed in some developing tissues. However, the mechanism for bone formation induced by the epithelial-mesenchymal cell interactions is not clear. The aim of our study was to reveal the role of laminin, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and bone matrix proteins in mesenchymal cell differentiation during uroepithelial bone induction using a well-established canine model. In this model, a myoperitoneal muscle flap from the abdominal rectus sheath was transplanted into the bladder wall. After 6 weeks, the bladder samples were removed and assessed by histology and immunohistochemistry. This study demonstrated that bone formation occurred in two different directions with two distinct mechanisms. We noted that bone-forming cells in two types of bone formation derived from mesenchymal stem cell differentiation induced either from uroepithelium or bone autoinduction. Laminin was only expressed in peripheral regions of uroepithelium bone formation. Type II collagen was expressed both intracellularly and extracellularly around hypertrophic chondrocytes, whereas VEGF was mostly expressed in proliferating chondrocytes. This study indicates that components in basement membrane like laminin play a role in transitional epithelium-induced differentiation of mesenchymal cells to chondrocytes in muscle tissue. The sequential expression of bone matrix proteins by differentiated osteogenetic cells indicates a subsequent sequence of bone autoinduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]