Regulation of Mandible Fracture Healing - An Immunohistochemical Study in Rat

Fracture healing is a sequence of events that involves a combination of intramembranous and endochondral ossification. During fracture healing, a number of growth factors and important cytokines such as BMP-2, BMP-4, TGF-β, and PDGF-B and Osteopontin are present at elevated levels in and around the fracture site, suggesting that they play an active role in promoting fracture healing. The regulation of fracture repair by important growth factors and cytokines in a mandible fracture has not been clearly understood. Taking this into consideration, we want to know about the control mechanism that the coordinates recruitment, localization, and function of different cell populations at the mandible fracture. In this study, we present 48 Wistar rats that have their right ramus mandible fractured with a bending clamp. On days 3, 7, 14 and 21 after the operation the animals were sacrificed with perfusion technique. For immunohistochemistry we used goat polyclonal antiboy for BMP-2 and BMP-4, rabbit polyclonal antibody for TGF-β and PDGF-B, and mouse monoclonal antibody for Osteopontin as the primary antibody. The presence and localized of these cytokines were analyzed.