The reconstruction of bones following tumor excision and radiotherapy remains a challenge. Our previous study, performed using polysaccharide-based microbeads that contain hydroxyapatite, found that these have osteoconductivity and osteoinductive properties. New formulations of composite microbeads containing HA particles doped with strontium (Sr) at 8 or 50% were developed to improve their biological performance and were evaluated in ectopic sites. In the current research, we characterized the materials by phase-contrast microscopy, laser dynamic scattering particle size-measurements and phosphorus content, before their implantation into two different preclinical bone defect models in rats: the femoral condyle and the segmental bone. Eight weeks after the implantation in the femoral condyle, the histology and immunohistochemistry analyses showed that Sr-doped matrices at both 8% and 50% stimulate bone formation and vascularization. A more complex preclinical model of the irradiation procedure was then developed in rats within a critical-size bone segmental defect. In the non-irradiated sites, no significant differences between the non-doped and Sr-doped microbeads were observed in the bone regeneration. Interestingly, the Sr-doped microbeads at the 8% level of substitution outperformed the vascularization process by increasing new vessel formation in the irradiated sites. These results showed that the inclusion of strontium in the matrix-stimulated vascularization in a critical-size model of bone tissue regeneration after irradiation.
Keywords: bone reconstruction; irradiated bone tissue; strontium-doped composite polymer; vascularization.