Trehalose enhances bone fracture healing in a rat sleep deprivation model

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sleep deprivation (SD) could delay bone fracture healing and evaluate the therapeutic effect of trehalose.

Eighteen 300-350 g female Sprague-Dawley rats were created a mid-femoral transverse osteotomy in the right thigh and divided into three groups (i.e., group 1: fracture; group 2: fracture + SD; and group 3: fracture + SD + trehalose). Seven days after surgery, the rats in group 2 and group 3 were started to get sleep-deprived for 18 h per day for 3 weeks. The rats in group 3 were injected with trehalose intraperitoneally at 1 g/kg/d for 3 weeks. Radiological and histological analyses were used to assess fracture healing quality. Circulating cytokines were detected by the end of the study. The expression of M1 and M2 macrophage markers were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

X-rays showed group 2 experienced much poorer fracture healing. Micro CT demonstrated that the bone quality of the fracture callus site in group 2 was much worse than that in groups 1 and 3. Both haematoxylin eosin (H&E) and Masson staining revealed that the bone fracture of the group 2 healed worse. Elisa results demonstrated that the interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) of the rats in group 2 were significantly higher. In vitro study showed that 100 mM trehalose enhanced the expression of M2 macrophage markers (Arg-1 and IL-10), and decreased M1 macrophage polarization through the decreasing expression of IL-6.

The present study showed (SD) could delay bone fracture healing in a rat model. And, trehalose could promote the healing of delayed bone fracture union by down-regulating pro-inflammatory mediators and enhancing M2 polarization.