Radiological and histochemical study of bone regeneration using the costal cartilage in rats

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct basic research on the possibility of using cartilage tissue for hard-tissue reconstruction and to observe morphological changes in the transition of the cartilage to bone. Methods: A 4-mm diameter bone defect was created in the right mandibular angle of rats. Cartilage, autologous bone, and artificial bone were grafted into the defect. Computed tomography (CT) was performed to measure the increase in bone volume. Further histological evaluation of the grafted site was performed. Results: At 12 weeks, CT show that bone formation in the costal cartilage group was comparable to that in the autogenous bone group. Histologi-cally, in the artificial bone group, a clear boundary was observed between the existing bone and defect, whereas in the costal cartilage and autologous bone groups, laminar plate bone repair of the defect was observed. Conclusion: The findings in this study suggest that bone reconstruction achieved with cartilage grafting is almost equivalent to that with autogenous bone grafting and that bone reconstruction using cartilage is clinically feasible. In future, if regenerated cartilage is successfully applied clinically, bone reconstruction using regenerated cartilage may be feasible.