Correlation between bone mineral density and serum vascular endothelial growth factor levels in ovariectomized rats / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Vascular endothelial growth factor play an important role in promoting healing of osteoporotic fractures, but whether it can affect the bone mineral density is not clear. OBJECTIVE: To observe the correlation between serum vascular endothelial growth factor, bone mineral density and the number of osteoblasts in the ovariectomized rats. METHODS: Forty female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into ovariectomized group and control group. After 3 months, the bone mineral density of the whole body, femur and lumbar spine was measured. Rat enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit was used to measure the level of serum vascular endothelial growth factor. Then, the rats in two groups received femoral metaphyseal fixation, decalcified, dehydrated, embeding in paraffin, slicing and hematoxylin-eosin staining. Each slice was free to take five fields of view (10×40) in order to count the osteoblasts of femur distal metaphysis under optical microscope. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After ovariectomized for 3 months, the rats body mass was increased significantly (P 0.05), and the difference of the osteoblast number between ovariectomized group and control group was not significant (P > 0.05). This indicated that there was no correlation between bone mineral density and the number of osteoblasts and vascular endothelial growth factor level in the ovariectomized group and the control group. These findings suggest that the bone mineral density is reduced and the body mass is increased in the ovariectomized rats, and the reduced bone mineral density of ovariectomized rats may be irrelevant with the change of serum vascular endothelial growth factor.