Basic fibroblast growth factor increases allograf incorporation: Bone chamber study in rats

We found increased penetration of new bone into a frozen bone allograft which had been pretreated with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Pairs of grafts were placed in newly designed titanium bone chambers implanted bilaterally in rat tibiae. The ingrowing bone can enter the cylindrical interior of the chamber only at one end. It then penetrates the graft inside the chamber but, due to the length of the cylinder, it never reaches the other end. The distance which the ingrown bone has reached into the graft can then be measured on histological slides. With bFGF there was a 51 percent increase in the bone penetration distance at 6 weeks in this model. It also appeared that further penetration had almost ceased in the controls, whereas in the bFGF-treated specimens, membranous ossification was still going on.