Effect Of Chinese Herbal Ultrasound Phoresis On Expression Of BMP-7 During Fracture Healing

OBJECTIVE Established animal models of bilateral radius fracture in rabbits. To investigate the effect on BMP-7 expression during fracture healing treated by Chinese herbal ultrasound-phoresis.METHODS Animal models of bilateral radius fracture in 84 rabbits were established. After established animal models successfully, 84 rabbits of New Zealand were divided into 3 groups(the experimental group, the ultrasound group and the control group, each group had 28 rabbits).The experimental group were treated by Chinese herbal("Jie gu yi hao") ultrasound-phoresis,the ultrasound group were treated by low-intensity pulsed ultrasound, the control group were given sham exposure.The rabbits were sacrificed at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 days and 4, 6 weeks respectively after operation. The tissue at the fracture ends were procured and observed with RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry(IHC) to realize the expression of BMP-7; assessed the fracture healing through X-ray and HE sections at 4,6 weeks after operation.RESULTS: X-ray shows that the fracture in the experimental group were healed faster than the ultrasound group, certainly, faster than the control group; HE sections showed the similar changes with X-ray. RT-PCR showed that The expression of BMP-7 mRNA in the experimental group were higher than that in the control group (P<0.05) at 3 days postoperatively; the experimental group were also higher than the ultrasound group or the control group at 6, 9, 12 days postoperatively, the differences is particularly obvious (P<0.01) 12 days postoperatively. IHC showed that, the expression of BMP-7 increased Gradually in each group, it begun to decline at 15 days postoperatively in the experimental group; the expression of BMP-7 in the experimental group were higher than that in the ultrasound or the control group (P<0.05) at 6, 9, 12, 15 days postoperatively; the differences was particularly obvious (P<0.01) at 9, 12 days postoperatively between the experimental group and the control group.CONCLUSIONS:The results showed that the Herbal ultrasound- phoresis could accelerate fracture healing and Shorten the time required for fracture healing by promoting the expression of BMP-7.