Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 31, 2025
Calvarial Model of Bone Augmentation in Rabbit for Assessment of Bone Growth and Neovascularization in Bone Substitution Materials
Published on: August 13, 2019
Concordance between alizarin red stained skeleton and micro-CT skeleton evaluation methods: A case study in New
Howard M Solomon1, Stacia Murzyn1, Joyce Rendemonti1
1Reproductive Toxicology, IVIVT, GSK, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, USA.
Objectives:
The objective of this study was to examine the fetal skeletons using both alizarin red stain and micro-computed tomography (CT) images; investigate differences, and to determine if the conclusions of the study were the same regardless of the examination method.
Methods:
A candidate drug was given orally by gavage to pregnant New Zealand White rabbits on gestation day (GD) 7 to GD 19 (mating = GD 0) at doses of 0 (control), 0.02, 0.5, 5, and 15 mg/kg/day. Maternal toxicity was evident at ≥0.02 mg/kg/day. The 199 fetal skeletons (totaling 50,546 skeletal elements) obtained at cesarean delivery on GD29 were first stained with Alizarin Red S, then imaged by a Siemens Inveon micro-CT scanner. All fetal skeletons were examined by both methods, without knowledge of dose group, and the results were compared.
Results:
In total, 33 types of skeletal abnormalities were identified. There was 99.8% concordance of results comparing stain to micro-CT. Ossification of the middle phalanx of the forepaw digit 5 showed the greatest difference between the two methods.
Conclusion:
Overall, micro-CT imaging is a realistic, and robust alternative to skeletal staining to examine fetal rabbit skeletons in developmental toxicity studies.
