Effects of apatite foam combined with platelet-rich plasma on regeneration of bone defects.

The objective of this study was to investigate the regenerative effects of apatite foam (AF) combined with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on bone defects. Critical-sized defects in the tibia of rats were filled with randomly distributed combinations of AF with and without PRP. The animals were killed after three, six, and 12 weeks, and their tissue responses were histologically examined. At three weeks, we found no significant differences in bone regeneration against control group (21.9 +/- 3.1%) when PRP (20.3 +/- 4.2%) and AF (21.6 +/- 2.9%) were used independently of each other. In contrast, significantly (p<0.01) larger amount of bone (32.3 +/- 6.5%) was formed when the defect was filled with PRP-incorporated AF. At six weeks, both PRP (38.1 +/- 3.2%) and AF (39.6 +/- 7.8%) showed significantly (p<0.05) higher rates of bone regeneration than the control, even though they were used independently. Moreover, the amount of regenerated bone significantly (p<0.01) increased in the defect filled with PRP-incorporated AF (76.1 +/- 8.2%). We concluded, therefore, that the combination of PRP and AF may be useful for the regeneration of defected bone.