Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Augments The Healing Of Demineralized Bone Matrix Grafts

A totally allogeneic graft material that would eliminate the need for harvesting bone from patients has been produced. The experiment involved thirty-six critical size defects which were created in the bones of 18 rabbits. Two experimental groups of 12 defects each were grafted with demineralized bone matrix (DBMIM) alone and demineralized bone matrix mixed with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF+ DBMIM), respectively. The remaining 12 defects were left empty as controls, and sacrificed on days 14, 30 and 60. Two rabbits, with four defects, of each group were sacrificed on day 14, 30 and 60 post grafting. The defects were retrieved for histological evaluation and quantitative analysis.



No bone formed across the defect in the controls. The differences in the amount of new bone formation between experimental groups were significant especially 30 and 60 days post grafting (p