Effects of aspirin on fracture healing in OPF rats

To study the effect of aspirin on healing process of osteoporotic fracture (OPF) in rats.

A total of 50 female Wistar rats aged 3 months were randomly divided into observation group and control group, castration method was adopted to establish the osteoporosis (OP) model. After artificial preparing fractures on the midpoint of left femur, fixing gram needle intramedullary, OPF modeling was complete. Aspirin lavage of 33 mg once a day was adopted in observation group after modeling, same amount of normal saline was used in the control as placebo. From each group, selected 5 rats at the 2nd, 4th, 8th and 12th week after modeling to measure the bone mineral density (BMD) and histological examination of the fracture callus, radiology observation was conducted at the 8th and 12th week. Left femur biomechanical measurement was taken at the 12th week.

BMD values of observation group at each time point were significantly higher than that of the control group after modeling (P<0.05); Histological observation showed that at the 8th week, the endochondral ossification process of observation group was faster than that of observation group, with fuzzy fracture line in observation group and clear fracture line in observation group; at the 12th week, fracture line disappeared in observation group, fracture line of the control group was fuzzy at the same time; three-point bending load of the left femur in observation group rats was significantly higher than that of control group after 12 weeks (P<0.05).

Aspirin can accelerate the healing of new callus in OPF rats, increase bone density and biomechanics strength, and promote fracture healing of osteoporotic rats.