Effects of Shenggu injection on expression of basic fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor in fracture healing

Jie CHENG; Daming LI

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

In the investigation of promoting fracture healing, exogenous growth factor is very instable, expensive and inaptitude to extend generally, so how to promote the expression of endogenous growth factor effectively is worthy of further studies.

OBJECTIVE:

To study the effects of Shenggu injection(SGI) on the expression of basic fibroblast growth factor(bFGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in fracture healing. DESIGN, TIME AND

SETTING:

The randomized controlled animal experiment was performed at the Orthopaedic laborary, Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology between July 2007 and August 2008. MATERIALS Sixty clean male SD rats aged 3 months were enrolled. The components of 1 g/L SGI were angelica sinensis, ground beetle, barrenwort, etc., provided by Hubei TCM hospital.

METHODS:

After the tibial bone fracture model was established, the SD rats were divided into two groups with 30 rats in each group, experimental group and control group. The experimental group was injected with SGI at the bone stumps, the other group was injected with the same volume of saline. This was carried once every 2 days with 0.2 mL once. Five SD rats of each group were executed to get bony callus at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th weeks after operation. MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

The methods of immunohistochemistry were used to detect the protein expression level and differences of bFGF and VEGF in the callus tissue during different periods of fracture healing.

RESULTS:

The immunohistochemistry findings showed that the expression levels of bFGF and VEGF in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group in each period.

CONCLUSION:

SGI can improve the expression levels of bFGF and VEGF in callus tissue during fracture healing, which is maybe one of the mechanisms of SGI to promote the healing of fracture.