Application of tissue engineered bioactive periosteum in lumbar intertransverse process fusion in rabbits / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Posterior spinal fusion is a process of bone fusion under special anatomical and biological effects, which affects by many factors. With the development of bone tissue engineering, in vitro constructed tissue engineered bioactive periosteum provides a new approach for solving this problem. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of in vitro constructed tissue engineered bioactive periosteum in treating lumbar intertransverse process fusion in rabbits. METHODS: In vitro constructed tissue engineered bioactive periosteum was implanted into lumbar intertransverse process of 24 healthy adult New Zealand rabbits. Three different materials were implanted into 3 transverse process gaps (Left L_(4,5,6), Right L_(4,5,6) of each animal. Namely, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) combined pig small intestine submucosa (SIS) were implanted into the right L_(4,5) of rabbits in the composite scaffold group; pure SIS was implanted into the right L_(5,6) of rabbits in the pure scaffold group; and autogeneic ilium was implanted into the left L_(5,6) of rabbits in the autogeneic ilium group. All rabbits were sacrificed at 12 weeks after operation to perform gross, imaging and histological observation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The gross observation showed that there had no significant difference between the composite scaffold and autogeneic ilium groups, but the difference was significant compared with the pure scaffold group. lmaging observation showed that the trabeculae was formed in lumbar intertransverse of rabbits in the composite scaffold and autogeneic ilium groups, however, no bone density could be seen in the pure scaffold group. Type I collagen and osteocalcin were strong positive expressed in the composite scaffold group, which had obvious difference to the autogeneic ilium group. No positive expression could be found in the pure scaffold group. It suggested that tissue engineered bioactive periosteum constructed by BMSCs combined with SIS is a well alternative to autogenous graft materials for spinal fusion.