Author(s)

Chisako Fukuda, Norihiro Akiyama, Mitsuru Takemoto, Shunsuke Fujibayashi, Masashi Neo, Takashhi Nakamura

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan..

Intrinsic osteoinductivity—the ability to induce bone formation in ectopic sites without addition of osteogenic factors has been reported in various porous materials. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive osteoclast-like cells are thought to play an important role in material-induced osteoinduction. To investigate the influence of osteoclastic activity on intrinsic osteoinduction, we loaded alendronate (10^–2 , 10^–4 , and 10^–6 M) onto porous β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) blocks to inhibit osteoclastic activity, and evaluated osteoinductivity by implantation of the blocks into the dorsal muscles of adult beagle dogs. Alendronate-loaded porous β-TCP blocks increased both speed and amount of osteoinduction, as measured 4 weeks after implantation, with the 10^–4 M alendronate-loaded β-TCP being especially active. This finding indicates that β-TCP loaded with 10^–4 M alendronate might prove crucial in providing the desirable balance between the degradation rate of bone scaffolds and their osteoinductive replacement. Thus, material-induced osteoinduction may be controlled by local application of alendronate, establishing alendronate loading as a promising therapeutic approach.

Osteoinduction; β-tricalcium Phosphate; Alendronate; Osteoclast; Osteogenesis

C. Fukuda, N. Akiyama, M. Takemoto, S. Fujibayashi, M. Neo and T. Nakamura, "Local Application of Alendronate on β-Tricalcium Phosphate Accelerated Induction of Osteogenesis with Formation of Giant Osteoclast-Like Cell," Journal of Biomaterials and Nanobiotechnology, Vol. 3 No. 2, 2012, pp. 169-177. doi: 10.4236/jbnb.2012.32023.