Repair of surgical bone defects grafted with hydroxylapatite + β-TCP and irradiated with λ=850 nm LED light.

The treatment of bone loss due to different etiologic factors is difficult and many techniques aim to improve the repair, including a wide range of biomaterials and recently, photobioengineering. This work aimed to assess by histological analysis the repair of bone defects grafted with biphasic synthetic micro-granular HA + β-TCP associated with LED phototherapy. Forty rats were divided into 4 groups (Clot, LED, Biomaterial and LED + Biomaterial) each subdivided into 2 subgroups according to the time of animal death (15 and 30 days). Surgical bone defects were prepared on the femur of each animal with a trephine drill. In animals of the Clot group the defect was filled only by blood clot, in the LED group the defect filled with the clot was further irradiated. In the animals of Biomaterial and LED + Biomaterial groups the defect was filled by biomaterial and the last one was further irradiated (λ = 850 ± 10 nm, 150 mW, Φ ~ 0.5 cm2, 20 J/cm2 - session, 140 J/cm2- treatment) at 48-h intervals for 2 weeks. Following animal death, samples were taken and analyzed by light microscopy. Using the degree of maturation of the bone by assessment of the deposition/organization of the basophilic lines in the newly formed bone tissue, the LED + Biomaterial group was the one in a more advanced stage of bone repair process at the end of the experiment. It may be concluded that the use of LED phototherapy was effective in positively modulating the process of bone repair of bone defects in the femur of rats submitted or not to biomaterial grafting.