DBM induced ectopic bone formation in the rat: the importance of surface area

Demineralized bone matrix (DBM) has been shown to induce ectopic endochondral bone formation, when intramuscularly implanted in rats. In earlier studies we have found a variation in bone formation capacity of this DBM. This might be due to the properties of the DBM itself, but the use of DBM blocks could be of influence as well. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate whether increasing the surface area of the DBM by morsellizing, influences the bone formation capacity. In view of this, DBM implants and morsellized DBM (MDBM) implants were placed intramuscularly in a rat model. At six weeks the implants were retrieved and evaluated by histology and histomorphometry. The results demonstrated that significant amounts of newly formed bone were present in some DBM as well as some MDBM implants while in others no, or very little new bone was found. Histomorphometric analysis showed an average bone formation of 2.6% in DBM implants and an average of 1.9% in MDBM implants. Still, the amount of bone formation was limited compared with previous studies. It is concluded that enlargement of the surface area by morsellizing DBM implants is not an important factor in bone forming capacity.