Submitted on December 22, 2003
Accepted on October 4, 2004
INDUCED ANGIOGENESIS WITH INTRAMEDULLARY DIRECT CURRENT: AN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
Muharrem Inan1*, Ilker Alat1, Iclal Gurses1, Ersoy Kekilli1, Ramazan Kutlu1, Ahmet Eskin1, Omer Murat Aydin1, Haci Bostan1, and Saim Yologlu1
1 Orthopaedics, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: minan{at}inonu.edu.tr.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate angiogenesis after using intramedullary direct electrical current in rabbit tibia. Thirty-two New Zealand rabbits were divided into four groups: 1 - false electrode, 2 - hole group, 3 - control, and 4 - intramedullary electrical stimulation. Half the rabbits in each group were evaluated angiographically, pathologically, and scintigraphically on day 7, and the rest were evaluated on day 21. Results proved that electrical stimulation was not capable of induction of angiogenesis in the subjects killed on day 7 and day 21. Furthermore, we found some fibrotic changes secondary to electrical stimulation on day 7 (p: 0.04) and day 21 (p: 0.01). However, an increase in new capillary vessels occurred in the false electrode group (p: 0.02). We found no useful effect of electrical stimulation in our study, a finding that is possibly due to our use of a method previously undocumented in the literature. We believe that this study can be the new baseline for further studies into the stimulation or inhibition of angiogenesis using intramedullary wire with or without electrical stimulation.
