Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14424 Potsdam, Germany.
J Orthop Res. 2010 Nov;28(11):1440-7. doi: 10.1002/jor.21175.
Secondary fracture healing in long bones leads to the successive formation of intricate patterns of tissues in the newly formed callus. The main aim of this work was to quantitatively describe the topology of these tissue patterns at different stages of the healing process and to generate averaged images of tissue distribution. This averaging procedure was based on stained histological sections (2, 3, 6, and 9 weeks post-operatively) of 64 sheep with a 3 mm tibial mid-shaft osteotomy, stabilized either with a rigid or a semi-rigid external fixator. Before averaging, histological images were sorted for topology according to six identified tissue patterns. The averaged images were obtained for both fixation types and the lateral and medial side separately. For each case, the result of the averaging procedure was a collection of six images characterizing quantitatively the progression of the healing process. In addition, quantified descriptions of the newly formed cartilage and the bone area fractions (BA/TA) of the bony callus are presented. For all cases, a linear increase in the BA/TA of the bony callus was observed. The slope was greatest in the case of the most rigid stabilization and lowest in the case of the least stiff. This topological description of the progression of bone healing will allow quantitative validation (or falsification) of current mechano-biological theories.
在长骨中，次级骨折愈合会导致新形成的骨痂中复杂的组织图案连续形成。这项工作的主要目的是定量描述愈合过程不同阶段这些组织模式的拓扑结构，并生成组织分布的平均图像。该平均过程基于 64 只绵羊的染色组织学切片（术后 2、3、6 和 9 周），这些绵羊的胫骨中段有 3 毫米的骨切开术，用刚性或半刚性外固定器固定。在平均之前，根据六个确定的组织模式对组织学图像进行拓扑排序。分别为两种固定类型和内侧和外侧获得了平均图像。对于每种情况，平均过程的结果都是一组六个图像，这些图像定量地描述了愈合过程的进展。此外，还呈现了新形成的软骨和骨痂的骨面积分数（BA/TA）的定量描述。对于所有情况，均观察到骨痂的 BA/TA 呈线性增加。最刚性固定的斜率最大，最不硬的斜率最小。这种对骨愈合进展的拓扑描述将允许对当前机械生物学理论进行定量验证（或证伪）。
