Roles of osteocyte apoptosis in steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head.
Genet Mol Res
; 15(1)2016 Mar 18.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27050956
An animal model of steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head (SANFH) was established to investigate the roles of osteocyte apoptosis in this process. Forty five-month-old male and female Japanese white rabbits were randomly divided into groups A (hormone + endotoxin), B (hormone alone), C (endotoxin alone), and D (blank control). Animals were sacrificed two and four weeks following the final treatment (N = 5 for each group at each time point). Bilateral femoral heads were fixed and decalcified, and empty lacunae were counted by hematoxylin staining. At weeks 2 and 4, the empty lacunae percentage was significantly higher in group A than that in groups B, C, or D (P < 0.01), while no significant difference was observed between these latter three. At week 2, all osteocyte apoptosis indexes were within normal ranges in all the groups, which therefore did not significantly differ in this respect (P > 0.05). However, at week 4, the apoptotic index was significantly higher in group A than that in groups B, C, or D (P < 0.01), comparisons between which revealed no such differences. Moreover, a positive correlation was observed between the percentage of empty lacunae and the apoptotic index at week 4 in group A (r = 0.893). We conclude that osteocyte apoptosis plays an important role in SANFH.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Osteocytes
/
Osteonecrosis
/
Apoptosis
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Genet Mol Res
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
/
GENETICA
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China
Country of publication:
Brazil