Abstract
Objective The adipose tissue represents an important reservoir of stem cells. There are few studies in the literature with which to histologically evaluate whether or not the adipose tissue graft is really a safe option to achieve bone repair. This study histologically analyzed the effect of fragmented autogenous adipose tissue grafts on bone healing in surgically created, critical-size defects (CSD) in a rabbit’s calvaria. Study design Forty-two New Zealand rabbits were used in this study. CSD that were 15 mm in diameter were created in the calvarium of each animal. The defects were randomly divided into two groups: in Group C (control), the defect was filled only by a blood clot and, in Group FAT (i.e., fragmented adipose tissue), the defect was filled with fragmented autogenous adipose tissue grafts. The groups were divided into subgroups (n = 7) for euthanasia at 7, 15, and 40 days after the procedure had been conducted. Histologic and histometric analyses were performed. Data were statistically analysed with ANOVA and Tukey’s tests (p < 0.05). Results The amount of bone formation did not show statistically significant differences seven days after the operation, which indicates that the groups had similar amounts of mineral deposition in the earlier period of the repair. Conversely, a significant of amount of bone matrix deposition was identified in the FAT group at 15 and 40 days following the operation, both on the border and in the body of the defect. Such an outcome was not found in the control group. Conclusion In this study, an autologous adipose tissue graft may be considered as likely biomaterial for bone regeneration, since it positively affected the amount of bone formation in surgically created CSD in the rabbits’ calvaria 40 days after the procedure had been performed. Further investigations with a longer time evaluation are warranted to determine the effectiveness of autologous adipose tissue graft in the bone healing. Key words:Adipose tissue, bone regeneration, rabbits, critical defects.
Highlights
A challenge in plastic and reconstructive surgery is to replace tissue and restore function through the transfer of tissue from other parts of the body [1]
Adipose-derived stem cells are obtained without the morbidity of bone marrow harvesting and have been induced to express genes and protein markers that are associated with osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, endothelium, and myocytes [11,12,14,15]
Stem cells are present in adipose tissue at a frequency of 2% and it has been identified as having differentiation potential that extends beyond the osteogenic phenotype
Summary
A challenge in plastic and reconstructive surgery is to replace tissue and restore function through the transfer of tissue from other parts of the body [1]. The aim of this study was to histologically analyze the effect of fragmented autogenous adipose tissue grafts on bone healing in surgically created, critical-size defects (CSD) in the rabbits’ calvaria. The following criteria, based in part on the work of Messora et al [18] and [19], were used to standardize the histomorphometric analysis of the digital images: 1- The total area (TA) to be analyzed corresponded to the entire area of the original surgical defect. This area was determined by first identifying the external and internal surfaces of the original calvarium at the right and left margins of the surgical defect, and connecting them with lines drawn following their respective curvatures. Data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey’s tests with a significance level of 5%
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