Alveolar Bone Loss: A Shorter-Time Study Model in Mice

In dentistry, surgical access to the alveolar bone is conducted in several clinical situations and in various specialities. Yet, when the periosteum is separated from the alveolar bone, osteoclastic activity is stimulated, which ends in a resorptive phase that leads to bone ridge loss (Staffileno et al., 1962; Staffileno et al., 1963; Ranjford and Costish, 1968; Yaffe et al., 1994). This loss, results from surgical exposure of the bone, is an undesired outcome of the repair process, and many studies have been conducted in an attempt to find a way to avoid or minimize it (Yaffe et al., 1995; Yaffe et al., 1997, Yaffe et al., 2000; Binderman et al., 2001; Kaynak et al., 2003). Rodents are routinely used as experimental models in the evaluation of alveolar bone loss (ABL), since the animals have a short life (Broobank, 1990). Other advantages of this animal model include the ease in handling and reproduction, the low costs in acquiring and maintaining the animals, apart from the anatomic similarity between molars and oral structures of mice and those of humans (Jordan, 1971). Yaffe et al. (1994) observed the occurrence of a regional accelerated phenomenon (RAP) that results from full-thickness flap surgeries. The authors reported a striking resorption of the cortical bone three weeks after the surgery. Based on that study, numerous studies have been conducted to assess ABL or to test drugs that could prevent ABL within a 21-day experimental period in rodent mandibles (Yaffe et al., 1995; Yaffe et al., 1997; Binderman et al., 2000; Kaynak et al., 2003). Nevertheless, Grevstad and Boe (1995) conducted an investigation and observed that the proliferation of osteoclasts reached a maximum level 10 days after mucoperiosteal flap surgery (MPS). Scand. J. Lab. Anim. Sci. 2010 Vol. 37 No. 1