[Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in repairing bone defect with vascularized bone graft-...

To study efficiency of vascularized bone graft combining with reconstituted bone xenograft (RBX) in repairing bone defect and the expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in serum.

From January 1998 to December 2002, 27 cases of bones defects were treated and randomly divided into 3 groups according to different repair materials: group A (the vascularized bone graft- RBX group, n=9), group B (the vascularized bone graft group, n=10) and group C(the RBX group, n=8). The bone defect repair, the bone healing time and the bone graft resorption were observed by radiograph after 3 months, 6 months and 12 months of operation, and the expression of VEGF in serum was assayed with lumino-enzyme immunoassay before operation and after operative 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks respectively.

The X-ray films showed that the bone healing was achieved in 8 cases of group A, in 6 cases of group B and in 3 cases of group C after 3 months; in 1 case of group A, respectively in 3 cases of both group B and group C after 6 months. The bone graft resorption was observed in 1 case of group B and in 2 cases of group C after 12 months. The serum VEGF values after operative 2 weeks and 4 weeks were higher than those before operation in all of 3 groups (P<0. 05), and the VEGF values of groups A and B were higher than that group C(P<0. 05) after 4 weeks. There were no significant differences (P>0. 05) in serum VEGF level between postoperative 6, 8 weeks and pre-operation in 3 groups.

The expression of serum VEGF obviously increase in the early period of bone transplanting, it is value of clinical evaluation of reparative efficiency of bone defect.