Objectives To evaluate the effect of a single-dose local administration versus the systemic administration of Erythropoietin on bone healing in calvarial bone defects
Material & Methods Critical-size cranial osteotomy defects were created in 30 rabbits.
The animals were randomly divided into 3 groups. The animals were randomly divided into 3 groups (n= 10 animals in each group). In the Group I, the bone defect was only filled with a collagen sponge soaked with erythropoietin. In the Group II, it was filled with a collagen sponge and erythropoietin injected systemically. While in the Group III, the defect was filled with a collagen sponge. The groups were further split in two for euthanasia 10- and 21-days post-surgery. New bone formation and neovascularization were evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin. For the 10-days samples, all the groups analyzed for area percent of blood vessels while on the 21- day samples, the area of new bone formation was calculated. Differences between groups were analyzed by one-way ANOVA.
Results At 10 days post-surgery, the histological analysis showed that the erythropoietin Groups exhibited a significantly higher percentage of bone formation compared with the other Group.
At 21 days post-surgery, a higher percentage of new bone was observed in the erythropoietin group.
Conclusions The results suggest that both local and systemic administration of erythropoietin hormone encouraged the bone healing in critical-size calvarial defects in Rabbits.