Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026
Multimodal Approach to Assess Bone Regeneration and Scaffold Performance
Published on: February 13, 2026
Radioisotopic evaluation of bone repair after experimental surgical trauma
Ana Cristina Breithaupt-Faloppa1, Pedro Fernandes Lara, Marinilce Fagundes Dos Santos
1Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Prosthesis and Traumatology, University of Sao Paulo School of Dentistry, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Background:
Scientific approach of the bone reaction after surgical procedures provides valuable information on methods and techniques. The purpose of this study was to follow this process using a radioisotope marker of bone remodelling.
Material And Methods:
Two bone cavities were created (one for every tibia) in adult Wistar male rats using a 0.5 mm spherical burr; left tibial cavities were filled with bovine freeze-dried bone; the right ones were left unfilled for control. Scintigrams were done with sodium methylene diphosphonate (MDP) labelled with radioactive pertechnetate (99mTcO4-) to evaluate the inflammatory response and the local osteoblastic activity. The evolution of bone repair was additionally evaluated by light microscopy.
Results:
Our results have shown that the highest bone activity was recorded between the 7th and the 14th day after surgery. The morphological analysis confirmed the results obtained with radioisotope analysis and did not reveal significant differences regarding the evolution of bone repair between the filled and the unfilled defects.
Conclusion:
We confirmed that 99mTc -MDP is a valuable tool to study bone repair, as it was able to show subtle alterations of bone activity even in lesions as small as those created herein (0.5 mm wide, 0.5 mm deep).
