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In this study, the Bioeutectic® blocks were inserted into the critical size defects of eight rabbits, using both tibiae, and the physical and chemical nature of the remodeled interface between the Bioeutectic® implants and the surrounding bone were performed at four and 15 months. The results showed a new fully mineralized bone growing in direct contact with the implants. The ionic exchange, taking place at the implant interface with the body fluids was essential in the process of the implant integration through a dissolution-precipitation-transformation mechanism. The study found the interface biologically and chemically active over the 15 months implantation period. The osteoblastic cells migrated towards the interface and colonized the surface at the contact areas with the bone. The new developed apatite structure of porous morphology mimics natural bone.

Desde su aparición en 1978, el ejemplar de “cuernos de la consagración” de El Cerro de La Encantada (Granátula de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, España) es sin duda el elemento de ese yacimiento del Bronce de La Mancha que más incógnitas plantea y que más dificultades presenta al interpretar el significado de su presencia en tierras tan occidentales, y especialmente tan en el interior de la Península Ibérica. Sus características y su semejanza con los ejemplares localizados en El Oficio, yacimiento almeriense correspondiente a la cultura de El Argar, su contexto arqueológico y cultural, sus paralelos y su cronología, testimonian una relación entre la Península Ibérica y el Mediterráneo Oriental durante la Edad del Bronce, concretamente a mediados del II milenio AC y en época premicénica, cuyo carácter necesariamente trascendió lo meramente “comercial”; no se trata de un elemento mueble sino arquitectónico, sin antecedentes conocidos en el III Milenio AC peninsular, que pone de manifiesto que su existencia no puede ser el resultado de un intercambio/comercio/regalo de materias primas o de objetos, sino de la presencia en tierras manchegas de una ideología que debió llegar hasta aquí en la mente de gentes que la guardaban en la memoria de su bagaje cultural. The Horns of Consecration from El Cerro de la Encantada (Granátula de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, España) were recovered in 1978. The Horns are the most enigmatic artefact from this site of the Bronze Age of La Mancha. The presence of such an item in a so western site, located in the most inland area of the Iberian Peninsula is quite difficult to explain. The peculiarities of the Horns and their resemblance to the items recovered from El Oficio (an Argaric site from Almeria, Spain), their archaeological and cultural context, their parallels and their chronology point to a relationship between the Iberian Peninsula and the Western Mediterrean area during the Bronze Age. This relationship took place at the mid-2nd century BC and during pre-Micenic age and it necessarily surpassed a mere commercial character. The Horns are not a portable item, but an architectonic one, without any known precedent at the Iberian Peninsula during the 3rd century BC. Their existence in La Mancha area cannot be attributed to a commercial exchange, or an offering of raw materials or objects, but to the presence of an ideology that arrived to La Mancha on the minds of some people that kept it deep in the memory of their cultural heritage.

Aim The purpose of this study was to determine if different melatonin concentrations enhances human adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiation into osteoblasts, in comparison with MSCs cultured with dexamethasone (DEX). Material and Methods MSCs were treated with different melatonin concentrations. Specifically: Group I: untreated MSCs; Group II: MSCs exposed to physiological doses of melatonin of 0.01 µM; Group III: MSCs exposed to 50 µM melatonin; Group IV: MSCs exposed to 100 µM melatonin; Group V: MSCs exposed to 150 µM melatonin; Group VI: MSCs exposed to 100 µM of DEX. Cell viability, adhesion, growth, differentiation and activity were evaluated at different time points (3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days) using the following assays MTT, SEM, Flowcytometry, ALP activity, Alizarin Red staining and RT-PCR. Results Melatonin stimulated the viability and alizarin red activity of MSCs in a dose-dependent manner. Melatonin 50 µM significantly increased ALP activity, especially after 21 and 28 days of culture. A significant decrease in the expression of membrane markers CD75, CD105 and CD90 was recorded over time, in the presence of melatonin; therefore, the MSCs were early differentiated into osteoblasts regardless of the melatonin concentration. Conclusion These results demonstrated that melatonin directly accelerated the differentiation of human stem cells into osteoblasts and also suggested that melatonin could be applied as a pharmaceutical agent to promote bone regeneration.