Experimental Study On Articular Cartilage Changes Repairing Metaphyseal Bone Defect With Calcium Sulfate

In this work, the morphologic changes of articular cartilage with bone grafting to fill subchondral bone defects were studied in rabbits. Twenty three-month-old New Zealand rabbits with bilateral tibial subchondral bone defects were investigated in this study. The defects were made about 5mm below the articular surface and were covered with surrounding tissue. The right side was filled with calcium sulfate bone graft, and the left side was filled with acrylic cement as control. The articular cartilage above the fillers was harvested 12 weeks after the operation. Gross observation, histological examination and transmission electron microscope observation were undertaken. The results showed that cartilage above the calcium sulfate had a normal hyaline articular cartilage appearance . In contrast, cartilage above the acrylic cement showed degenerative changes in both histological and electron microscope observation. These results suggest that using calcium sulfate bone graft to fill subchondral metaphyseal bone defects has no harmful effect to overlying articular cartilage. Use of this substitute can reduce the possibility of osteoarthritis compared toacrylic cement...