To improve the osteogenic property of bone repairing materials and to accelerate bone healing are major tasks in bone biomaterials research. The objective of this study was to investigate if the mechanical force could be used to accelerate bone formation in a bony defect in vivo. The calcium sulfate cement was implanted into the left distal femoral epiphyses surgically in 16 rats. The half of rats were subjected to external mechanical force via treadmill exercise, the exercise started at day 7 postoperatively for 30 consecutive days and at a constant speed 8 m·min-1 for 45 min·day-1, while the rest served as a control. The rats were scanned four times longitudinally after surgery using microcomputed tomography and newly formed bone was evaluated. After sacrificing, the femurs had biomechanical test of three-point bending and histological analysis. The results showed that bone healing under mechanical force were better than the control with residual defect areas of 0.64±0.19 mm2 and 1.78±0.39 mm2(P<0.001), and the ultimate loads to failure under mechanical force were 69.56±4.74 N, stronger than the control with ultimate loads to failure of 59.17±7.48 N(P=0.039). This suggests that the mechanical force might be used to improve new bone formation and potentially offer a clinical strategy to accelerate bone healing.
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