OBJECTIVES Clinical studies have shown alcohol to be a risk factor for traumatic orthopaedic injuries and for nonunion. Data from animal studies suggest that alcohol exposure inhibits fracture healing. This report presents a novel rodent model of impaired fracture healing caused by repeated alcohol exposure. Using this model, we examined the regenerative effects of an intravenously administered...

Mouse fracture models have become increasingly versatile tools for the study of how fractures heal. Mouse genes can be specifically modified using transgenic technology, thereby providing the opportunity to study the roles of individual genes during the fracture healing process. The mouse rib fracture model is a reliable model for use in studies of gene expression during fracture healing, which...

Fractures are among the most common human traumas. Fracture healing represents a unique temporarily definable post-natal process in which to study the complex interactions of multiple molecular events that regulate endochondral skeletal tissue formation. Because of the regenerative nature of fracture healing, it is hypothesized that large numbers of post-natal stem cells are recruited and contr...

Most long-bone fractures heal through indirect or secondary fracture healing, a complex process in which endochondral ossification is an essential part and bone is regenerated by tissue differentiation. This process is sensitive to the mechanical environment, and several authors have proposed mechano-regulation algorithms to describe it using strain, pore pressure and/or interstitial fluid velo...

At present, the identity of the proteins that participate in mechanical stimulation during the fracture healing process is not known. Here, we screened for and identified 299 proteins that are expressed in various stages of mechanically stimulated fracture healing. Among these biomarkers, 54 proteins were differentially expressed during all three recovery time points. Gene ontology (GO) analysi...

A retrospective study of 30 patients (12 alcoholics and 18 nonalcoholics) was performed to determine whether the fracture healing time (T) was longer in alcoholics and smokers. Fracture healing time (mean ± standard error) was longer in alcoholics (24.1 ± 5.8 weeks vs. 11.4 ±1.1 weeks in nonalcoholics, p=0.001) and in 21 smokers (15.8 ± 2.9 weeks) vs. 9 nonsmokers (18.2 ± 5.9 weeks) (p=0.045). ...

INTRODUCTION: Fracture healing is a complex, well-orchestrated process, and animal models are essential to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms involved. Whereas in the past large animals like sheep and dogs were chosen for fracture healing studies, nowadays, smaller animals like mice and rats are used, especially to analyze the molecular aspects of fracture healing. Mouse models are che...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of antioxidant molecules melatonin and caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on fracture healing under ischemic conditions. METHODS A right tibia fracture was created and fixed with an intramedullary pin in forty four male Wistar-albino rats. The rats were then randomly allocated to fracture, fracture-ischemia, fracture- ischemia-me...

Although it has been well established that fracture healing is influenced by the mechanical environment, the optimal parameters have not yet been established. In two groups of sheep an experimental tibial diaphysial fracture was created, and stabilised using external skeletal fixation. In one group rigid fixation was maintained throughout fracture healing; in the other group controlled axial mi...

Introduction There are several factors influencing the fracture healing process, the most important being age and bone quality. Cellular and molecular alterations that can be found in elderly patients make the healing process difficult, and may lead to complications such as pseudoarthrosis or delayed non-union. In the same way, in altered bone metabolism condition such as osteoporosis, physiolo...