OBJECTIVESr-HA, a new type of hydroxyapatite biomaterial, was implanted into animals to study the bioreaction and character, which would be helpful for the further clinical applications in the future.

METHODSTotally 24 rabbits were divided into 3 groups. The bone defect of 6 mm x 12 mm x 4 mm was made at both mandibular angles of rabbits and Sr-HA of different proportion (10%, 5%, 0) was applied to reform the defects. One group of animals were killed randomly at 1, 3 and 6 months after operation to evaluate the material biological compatibility using anatomic, X-ray examination, histological and ECT methods.

RESULTSThe histological photographs showed that Sr-HA caused little infection around implanted area and, almost was not repulsed by hosts. With the degradation of biomaterial, there was more apparent new bone growth in the area around Sr-HA than that around HA and some ossification can be found in soft tissue nearby. Also a tight osteointegrity was gradually got after the operation, according to the results of X-ray and, the border between Sr-HA and bone was hardly discovered at the 6th month after the operation. A more obvious nuclide assembling was observed at the side of Sr-HA by ECT images. With the biodegradation of Sr-HA, more new bone was intruded into the spare space of the biomaterial.

CONCLUSIONSr-HA has better biocompatibility and higher biodegradation than that of pure HA. It holds an excellent osteoinductivity and fair osteoconductivity to some degree too. So a more satisfying effect of bone defect rehabilitation was gained with the increasing new bone depositing in the free space of the material, when it degraded gradually.