title: Minimally invasive mandibular bone augmentation using injectable hydrogels.
abstract: Hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels are proven biocompatible materials and excellent carriers of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) that have been successfully tested for bone generation in vivo. Different formulations, with or without nanohydroxyapatite, have shown promise for craniofacial applications. In this study, 28 rats were used to investigate whether it is possible to achieve mandibular bone augmentation upon injection of novel hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels containing nanohydroxyapatite and different concentrations of BMP-2 (0, 5 and 150 µg/ml). The biomaterials were injected subperiosteally through fine needles into the innate mandibular diastema, imitating a clinical procedure for resorbed mandibles. No incisions, flaps or sutures were necessary. After 8 weeks the mandibles were evaluated by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), micro-computed tomography (μCT), histology, immunohistochemistry and fluorochrome labelling. As a result, engineered bone was observed in all treated mandibles, with a statistically significant increase in mandibular bone volume correlated with the amount of BMP-2 loaded in the hydrogel formula. We therefore demonstrated that minimally invasive mandibular bone augmentation is possible upon injection in rats, when using the appropriate injectable scaffolds. This represents an attractive clinical alternative for oral implantology patients.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Anatomía y Embriología Humana I, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martínez-Sanz
authors.forename: Oommen P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kisiel
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Engstrand
authors.forename: Karoline M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bohner
authors.forename: Kenneth B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Jonsson
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kohler
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Dmitri A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Ossipov
authors.forename: Jöns
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hilborn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018786:Bone Substitutes; D020100:Hydrogels; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D018786:Bone Substitutes; D020100:Hydrogels