No abstract

To compare the different effects of implanting sensory nerve tracts or blood vessel on the osteogenesis, vascularization, and neurotization of the tissue-engineered bone in vivo, we constructed the tissue engineered bone and implanted the sensory nerve tracts (group SN), blood vessel (group VB), or nothing (group Blank) to the side channel of the bone graft to repair the femur defect in the rabbit. Better osteogenesis was observed in groups SN and VB than in group Blank, and no significant difference was found between groups SN and VB at 4, 8, and 12 weeks postoperatively. The neuropeptides expression and the number of new blood vessels in the bone tissues were increased at 8 weeks and then decreased at 12 weeks in all groups and were highest in group VB and lowest in group Blank at all three time points. We conclude that implanting either blood vessel or sensory nerve tract into the tissue-engineered bone can significantly enhance both the vascularization and neurotization simultaneously to get a better osteogenesis effect than TEB alone, and the method of implanting blood vessel has a little better effect of vascularization and neurotization but almost the same osteogenesis effect as implanting sensory nerve.

We investigated whether implantation of vascular bundles or sensory nerves affected the expression of calcitonin gene-related peptide type I receptor (CGRP1R) and neuropeptide Y1 receptor (NPY1R) in tissue-engineered bone. We implanted osteogenically induced bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) with β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) as the scaffold material either with sensory nerve tracts (group I, n = 18), vascular bundles (group II, n = 18) or alone (group III, n = 18) to repair a 1.2 cm femur defect in the rabbit. Better osteogenesis was observed by x-ray and histology in groups I and II than in group III at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Within the new bone, the mRNA levels of the two neuropeptide receptors determined by real-time PCR increased through week 8, and then gradually decreased (P < 0.05). Expression of the neuropeptide receptors determined by immunohistochemistry was lowest at 4 weeks (P < 0.05) and was higher in group II than in group I (P < 0.05). Expression was significantly higher in groups I and II than in group III at all time points. We conclude that implanting vascular bundles into tissue-engineered bone can significantly improve the early expression of CGRP1R and NPY1R. In contrast, implantation of sensory nerves did not show the same dramatic effect as implantation of vascular bundles.