Early tissue response to modified implant surfaces using back scattered imaging
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026
Multimodal Approach to Assess Bone Regeneration and Scaffold Performance
Published on: February 13, 2026
Hiroshi Nakada1, Toshiro Sakae, Racquel Z LeGeros
1Dept. of Gnatho-Oral Prosthetic Rehabilitation, Nihon University School of Dentistry at Matsudo, Japan. nakada.hiroshi@nihon-u.ac.jp
Purpose:
It is now well known that implant surface properties affect osseointegration. Grit-blasting with abrasives and coating by plasma are methods to modify implant surfaces. This study aimed to compare the direction of new bone formation associated with three types of surfaces.
Materials And Methods:
Titanium (Ti) alloy rods grit-blasted with alumina abrasive (Group 1, G1), with apatitic abrasive (Group 2, G2), and with apatitic abrasive and plasma-sprayed with hydroxyapatite (Group 3, G3) were implanted in surgically created defects in tibias of New Zealand white rabbits for 2 and 4 weeks. After sacrifice, the implants and surrounding bones were obtained and analyzed using back scattered imaging.
Results:
Differences in patterns of bone formation among the groups were observed: originating from the cortical bone towards the implant surface (Type A), surrounding the implant (Type B) and originating from the medullary cavity (Type C). G1 and G3 showed Types A and B while G2 exhibited Types A, B and C. After 4 weeks, greater amount of new bone was observed in G2 group compared with those in G1 and G3 groups.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrated that patterns of bone formation are influenced by methods of surface modification.
