[Comparison of acellular bovine pericardium material with collagen membrane in guiding bone regeneration]

To compare the effect of guiding bone regeneration between 1-ethyl-3(3-diaminopropyol)-carbodiimide (EDAC)-crosslinked acellular bovine pericardium (ABP) and medical collagen membrane (CM).

Defects of 7 mm X 7 mm x 5 mm were created in both mandibles of 24 rabbits, which weighted 2.6-3.5 kg. One side defect was covered with EDAC-crosslinked ABP(EDAC-crosslinked ABP group), the other side defect with medical CM as control(CM group). The ability of bone defect repair and change of both membrane materials were evaluated by gross observation, histological study and computer graphic analysis in the 4th, 8th, 16th and 24th weeks after operation.

The surface of bone defects was even, consistent with adjacent normal bone in EDAC-crosslinked ABP group, while that of bone defects was of no evenness in CM group in the 16th and the 24th weeks. The histological observation showed that bone trabecula formed in the EDAC-crosslinked ABP group and fibrous connective tissue was seen in CM group in the 16th and the 24th weeks. There were no significant differences in new bone percentage of bone defects between 2 groups in the 4th and the 8th weeks (P > 0.05). In the 16th week new bone percentage of bone defects was 81.99% +/- 3.92% in EDAC-crosslinked ABP group and 76.35% +/- 4.29% in CM group, showing significant difference (P < 0.05). The average percentage of absorption in EDAC-crosslinked ABP group was 16.57%, 27.94%, 65.61 and 85.72% in the 4th, 8th, 16th and 24th weeks respectively, while that in CM group was more than 50% in the 4th week and completely degraded at the end of 8 weeks.

EDAC-crosslinked ABP has a better effect on guiding bone regeneration than CM in the repair of bone defects.