Abstract
Despite high rates of osseointegration in healthy patients, complex cases present an increased risk of osseointegration failure when treated with dental implants. Furthermore, if immediate loading of the implants is used, maximizing the response of the host organism would be desirable. Anabolic steroids, such as Nandrolone Decanoate (ND), are reported to have beneficial clinical effects on various bone issues such as osteoporosis and bone fractures. However, their beneficial effects in promoting osseointegration in dental implant placement have not been documented. The study aimed to examine histological changes induced by ND in experimental dental implants in rabbit models. Two dental implants were placed in the tibias of 24 adult rabbits. Rabbits were allocated to one of two groups: control group or test group. Rabbits in the latter group were given nandrolone decanoate (15 mg/kg, immediately after implant placement and after 1 week). Micro-radiographic and histological analyses were assessed to characterize the morphological changes promoted by the nandrolone decanoate use. Total bone volume and fluorescence were significantly higher in the control group after 2 weeks. Such a difference between the two groups might indicate that, initially, nandrolone lengthens the non-specific healing period characteristic of all bone surgeries. However, after the beginning of the reparative processes, the quantity of newly formed bone appears to be significantly higher, indicating a positive stimulation of the androgen molecule on bone metabolism. Based on micro-radiology and fluorescence microscopy, nandrolone decanoate influenced bone regeneration in the implant site. The anabolic steroid nandrolone decanoate affects the healing processes of the peri-implant bone and therefore has the potential to improve the outcomes of implant treatment in medically complex patients.
Highlights
Since Branemark’s discovery of osseointegration in the 1960s [1], scientific research has turned its interest towards aspects that could allow an enlargement of the initial indications: modifications of implants [2,3,4] and biofunctionalization of surfaces [5].A different approach is explored in this study, namely the enhancement of the host’s response to implant placement
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of nandrolone decanoate administration on osseointegration in in vivo rabbit models
Four rabbits from the control group and four rabbits from the test group were sacrificed at each stage, i.e., at 2, 3 and 4 weeks
Summary
Since Branemark’s discovery of osseointegration in the 1960s [1], scientific research has turned its interest towards aspects that could allow an enlargement of the initial indications: modifications of implants [2,3,4] and biofunctionalization of surfaces [5].A different approach is explored in this study, namely the enhancement of the host’s response to implant placement. Despite the very high initial success rate in osseointegration [6], implant therapy has limitations in medically complex patients such as those suffering from systemic pathologies that have an effect on bone metabolism and on the potential for osseointegration, as in the case of autoimmune disease, diabetes mellitus, drug therapy, and past radiation therapy [7]. Many systemic drugs have been studied to enhance the osseointegration process of implants: parathyroid hormone, calcitriol, prostaglandin EP4 receptor agonist, dickkopf-1 antibody, sclerostin antibody, estrogen replacement and calcitonin, alendronate, bisphosphonate ibandronate, zoledronic acid, osteoprotegerin, and simvastatin [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29]. Calcium metabolism and ND have been demonstrated to have a synergic effect on increasing bone mineral density; they increase bone formation and stimulate the production of extra-osseous collagen while decreasing bone resorption [31]
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