Calcitonin and fracture healing. An experimental study on rats

The effects of systemically administered calcitonin (CT) on fracture healing were analyzed in an experimental study on rats. The healing of a fracture was followed from 3 days up to 9 weeks postoperatively. Half of the rats in each age group were given daily CT 10 MRC-U/kg body wt s.c. Mechanical properties of the healing tibial fractures (tension strength) as well as various connective tissue components of the callus tissue were analyzed. No difference in the radiological or microscopical appearance of the fractures was detectable between the animals receiving CT and the controls. In the biochemical analysis matrix production as assessed from the concentrations of nitrogen, hexosamines, and hydroxyproline within the callus followed the usual lines of undistributed fracture union without any difference between the groups with and without CT. No differences could be detected in the mineralization of the callus between the specimens from animals receiving CT and those without. The tensile strength values of the fractures increased almost linearly up to 9 weeks. At 1 week the tensile strength values for fractures union in the animals without CT were approximately 50% higher, but later on no differences could be detected between the groups. These results indicate that although in the early phases of long-term CT therapy collagen synthesis may be impaired, there will be no effect on the net content of collagen or calcifying tissue in the callus or on the mechanical strength of healing fractures.