Bone formation in calvarial defects of Sprague-Dawley rats by transplantation of calcium phosphate glass

The purpose of this study was to investigate the bone-regenerative effect of calcium phosphate glass in vivo. We prepared amorphous calcium phosphate glass powder having a mean particle size of 400 microm in the system CaO-CaF2-P2O5-MgO-ZnO. Calvarial critical-sized defects (8 mm) were created in 60 male Sprague-Dawley rats. The animals were divided into an experimental group and control group of 30 animals each. Each defect was filled with a constant weight of 0.5 g calcium phosphate glass powder mixed with saline. As a control, the defect was left empty. The rats were sacrificed 2, 4, or 8 weeks postsurgery, and the results evaluated using radiodensitometric and histological studies; they were also examined histomorphometrically. When the calcium phosphate glass powders with 400-microm particles were grafted, the defects were nearly completely filled with new-formed bone in a clean healing condition after 8 weeks. It was observed that the prepared calcium phosphate glass enhanced new bone formation in the calvarial defect of Sprague-Dawley rats and could be expected to have potential for use as a hard tissue regeneration material.