The effect of aging on the healing of hydroxylapatite implants

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aging on the healing process after insertion of a hydroxylapatite (HA) implant into bone. Three groups of eight male Wistar rats, aged 6 weeks (young group), 12 weeks (adult group), and approximately 2 years (old group) were used in this experiment. Two implants were placed into the tibia of each rat. The animals were killed 7, 14, 28, and 56 days after implantation, and 15-microns, hematoxylin-eosin-stained, undecalcified sections were prepared. The healing process was examined histologically, and histomorphometric measurements were made by a computer-based image analyzer to quantify the percentage of HA-bone contact and trabecular bone in the medullary cavity. In the young group, new trabecular bone formed actively around the HA implant and good HA-bone contact was achieved more rapidly than in the adult group. In the old group, both the quantity of newly formed trabecular bone around the implant and the extent of HA-bone contact were less than in the other groups. The results suggest that the rate and volume of new bone formation around implants decrease with increasing age.