ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Bone grafting is commonly used to repair bone defects. As the porosity of the graft scaffold increases, bone formation increases, but the strength decreases. Early attempts to engineer materials were not able to resolve this problem. In recent years, nanomaterials have demonstrated the unique ability to improve the material strength and toughness while stimulating new bone formation. In our previous studies, we synthesized a nano-scale material by reinforcing a porous β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) ceramic scaffold with Na2O-MgO-P2O5-CaO bioglass (β-TCP/BG). However, the in vivo effects of the β-TCP/BG scaffold on bone repair remain unknown.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We investigated the efficacy of β-TCP/BG scaffolds compared to autografts in a canine tibiofibula defect model. The tibiofibula defects were created in the right legs of 12 dogs, which were randomly assigned to either the scaffold group or the autograft group (six dogs per group). Radiographic evaluation was performed at 0, 4, 8, and 12 weeks post-surgery. The involved tibias were extracted at 12 weeks and were tested to failure via a three-point bending. After the biomechanical analysis, specimens were subsequently processed for scanning electron microscopy analysis and histological evaluations.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Radiographic evaluation at 12 weeks post-operation revealed many newly formed osseous calluses and bony unions in both groups. Both the maximum force and break force in the scaffold group (n = 6) were comparable to those in the autograft group (n = 6, P > 0.05), suggesting that the tissue-engineered bone repair achieved similar biomechanical properties to autograft bone repair. At 12 weeks post-operation, obvious new bone and blood vessel formations were observed in the artificial bone of the experimental group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The results demonstrated that new bone formation and high bone strength were achieved in the β-TCP/BG scaffold group, and suggested that the β-TCP/BG scaffold could be used as a synthetic alternative to autografts for the repair of bone defects.</p>