Fracture healing in a rat osteopenia model.

Fracture healing is influenced by mechanical and biologic factors. The capacity for fracture repair has been reported to decrease with age, although the risk of fracture increases with age. Fracture healing in an animal model of postmenopausal osteoporosis or osteopenia would provide a useful technique to evaluate and develop new treatment protocols. The authors examined the tensile and bending properties of healing femoral fractures in normal and ovariectomized rats. Mechanical data from tensile and bending tests indicate ovariectomy impairs fracture healing, which was confirmed through histologic study. Bending and tensile data provide useful information concerning the mechanical properties of the healing fracture. Tensile tests were noted to be sensitive indicators of the properties of the healing fracture.