Bone Abstracts

The proper healing of bone defects requires a bone graft or bone substitute and synthetic materials have been developed as alternatives to autografts and allografts. Poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is a synthetic polymer widely used for bone healing because of its biocompatibility and biodegradability. PLGA scaffolds have also been used in drug delivery devices, such as in combination with simvastatin, to stimulate bone growth. In this work, we examined the usefulness of a combination of PLGA with simvastatin for treating bone defects. For this, two defects were created in rat calvaria and in half of the animals the right sides were filled with PLGA scaffolds while the other half received PLGA plus simvastatin; the left sides remained empty. The rats were killed for histological analysis after 4 and 8 weeks. There was a significant increase in the amount of bone formation in the treated lesions, particularly those that received PLGA plus simvastatin. The animal use described here was approved by an institutional Committee for Ethics in Animal Use of University of Paraiba Valley (UNIVAP) (protocol n° A051/CEP/2009) and the experiments were done within the general guidelines of the Brazilian Society for Laboratory Animal Science (SBCAL) and the principles of laboratory animal care (NIH publication 42–75, 2011).