Short-term healing kinetics of cortical and cancellous bone osteopenia induced by unloading during the reloading period in young rats.

We investigated the short-term recuperation of bone mass during skeletal reloading after a period of unloading in young rats. One hind limb of 4-week-old rats was either unloaded irreversibly by sciatic neurectomy, or unloaded reversibly by external fixation. Other animals were sham-operated.