Treatment of denervation/disuse osteoporosis in the rat with a capacitively coupled electrical signal: effects on bone formation and bone resorption.
Utilizing a sciatic neurectomy model of disuse osteoporosis, the effects on rates of bone formation and bone resorption were examined when a capacitively coupled electrical signal was applied to the denervated tibia in the rat. It was found that a low-voltage, symmetrical sine wave, 60-kHz, capacitively coupled signal had no significant effect on the amount of bone resorption occurring in denervated right tibiae in rats previously labeled with [3H]tetracycline. This was true whether the signal was applied while osteoporosis was developing (prevention of osteoporosis) or after it had been established (treatment of osteoporosis). If a similar capacitively coupled signal was applied to rats in which osteoporosis was well established, and the rats were labeled with [3H]tetracycline daily during a 12-day treatment period, it was found that there was statistically significant enhancement of the amount of new bone formation (increased [3H]tetracycline incorporation) in the tibiae that received the signal as compared with that of the controls. These results indicate that prevention or amelioration of disuse osteoporosis that occurs with a capacitively coupled electrical signal is due not to a change in the rate of bone resorption, but to an increase in the rate of bone formation.
Brighton
C T
CT
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104.
Tadduni
G T
GT
Goll
S R
SR
Pollack
S R
SR
D000818:Animals; D001862:Bone Resorption / Q000517:prevention & control; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy; D007103:Immobilization; D008297:Male; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000601:surgery; D013754:Tetracyclines / Q000378:metabolism; D013977:Tibia / Q000294:innervation / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
D013754:Tetracyclines