FRIDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- A new bone substitute material may offer advantages when used in vertebroplasty compared to polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), according to research from an animal study published in the Aug. 15 issue of Spine.
Bo Bai, M.D., of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College in China, and colleagues analyzed data from 40 vertebral bodies in four adult rhesus monkeys. The vertebral bodies were treated with either PMMA; rhBMP-2/CPC, which contains recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 with nanoscale calcium phosphate cement; or saline as control.
The researchers found that at two months, the rhBMP-2/CPC degraded at the same rate of new bone ingrowth. Gaps, inflammatory reactions, or membranous or fibrous connective tissues were not detected, and at six months, mature bone tissue had replaced almost all of the cement. No monkeys, however, showed bone formation, absorption, or necrosis around the PMMA cement.
"Our study confirmed that the implanted PMMA cement did not degrade and consequently there was no new bone or vessel ingrowth. In addition, the fibrous tissue, gaps, and local aseptic inflammation was present in the bone-cement interface. Therefore, we can state with assurance that a combination of polymerizing febricity, the poisonous monomer in PMMA, and failure of degradation of PMMA may resist bone regeneration and remodeling," the authors write.
