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Effects of intramedullary nails composed of a new β‐type Ti‐Nb‐Sn alloy with low Young's modulus on fracture healing in mouse tibiae
Author(s) -
Fujisawa Hirokazu,
Mori Yu,
Kogure Atsushi,
Tanaka Hidetatsu,
Kamimura Masayuki,
Masahashi Naoya,
Hanada Shuji,
Itoi Eiji
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.34064
Subject(s) - bone healing , intramedullary rod , materials science , alloy , modulus , composite material , medicine , surgery
The influence of Young's moduli of materials on the fracture healing process remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the effects of intramedullary nails composed of materials with low Young's moduli on fracture repair. We previously developed a β‐type Ti‐Nb‐Sn alloy with low Young's modulus close to that of human cortical bone. Here, we prepared two Ti‐Nb‐Sn alloys with Young's moduli of 45 and 78 GPa by heat treatment, and compared their effects on fracture healing. Fracture and nailing were performed in the right tibiae of C57BL/6 mice. The bone healing process was evaluated by microcomputed tomography (micro‐CT), histomorphometry, and RT‐PCR. We found larger bone volumes of fracture callus in the mice treated with the 45‐GPa Ti‐Nb‐Sn alloy as compared with the 78‐GPa Ti‐Nb‐Sn alloy in micro‐CT analyses. This was confirmed with histology at day 14, with accelerated new bone formation and cartilage absorption in the 45‐GPa Ti‐Nb‐Sn group compared with the 78‐GPa Ti‐Nb‐Sn group. Acp5 expression was lower in the 45‐GPa Ti‐Nb‐Sn group than in the 78‐GPa Ti‐Nb‐Sn group at day 10. These findings indicate that intramedullary fixation with nails with a lower Young's modulus offer a greater capacity for fracture repair. Our 45‐GPa Ti‐Nb‐Sn alloy is a promising material for fracture treatment implants. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 2841–2848, 2018.