Bone fracture healing is a complicated physiological regenerative process initiated in response to injury and is similar to bone development. To demonstrate whether an exogenous supply of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) helps in bone fracture healing, closed mid-diaphyseal femur fractures were created and stabilized with intramedullary pins in eight-week-old wild-type (WT) PTHrP+/+ and PTHrP+/- mice. After administering PTHrP for two weeks, callus tissue properties were analyzed at one, two, and four weeks post-fracture (PF) by various methods. Bone formation-related genes and protein expression levels were evaluated by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blots. At two weeks PF, mineral density of callus, bony callus areas, mRNA levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), type I collagen, Runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx-2), and protein levels of Runx-2 and insulin-like growth factor-1 decreased in PTHrP+/- mice compared with WT mice. At four weeks PF, total collagen-positive bony callus areas, osteoblast number, ALP-positive areas, and type I collagen-positive areas all decreased in PTHrP+/- mice. At both two and four weeks PF, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-positive osteoclast number and surface decreased a little in PTHrP+/- mice. The study indicates that exogenous PTHrP provided by subcutaneous injection could redress impaired bone fracture healing, leading to mutation of activated PTHrP by influencing callus areas, endochondral bone formation, osteoblastic bone formation, and bone turnover.
Keywords: PTHrP+/− mice; bone fracture healing; callus tissue; endogenous; exogenous; parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP).