Treatment of injuries of articular cartilage through the application of extracorporeal focused high energy shock waves and collagen membranes: an experimental study in rabbits

• Grant number: 10/18231-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2011
• End date: June 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Bioengineering
• Principal Investigator: Juliana Marchi
• Grantee: Juliana Marchi
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Alexandre Félix Fraga ; Lídia Dornelas de Faria ; Roberto Guarniero ; Rodrigo Bezerra de Menezes Reiff ; Rodrigo Fernando Costa Marques ; Tomaz Puga Leivas

Abstract

The cartilage has characteristics that hinder the healing of wounds. Some treatments are proposed, however, the majority seeks only the relief of symptoms and few have proven effective for regeneration. The extracorporeal shock waves and collagen-based materials are studied as an alternative therapy for lesions in different tissues, including cartilage. The objective of this study is to analyze the response of injured cartilage to extracorporeal focused high-energy shock waves and collagen membranes applied alone and in combination. The collagen membranes will be characterized by Field Emission Gun (FEG), X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). For the study of therapies will be used 24 New Zealand rabbits, who comply with the criteria for inclusion. Interventions will be divided into six groups: no injury, only injury; injury and application of collagen; injury and application of shock waves, injury, application of collagen and shock waves; injury, application of shock waves and collagen. Interventions will be implemented in the hind legs of animals so that they all match each other. After application of the protocols, histological analysis will be performed. Quantitative data will be analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results of the interventions will be compared by analysis of variance (parametric distributions) or the Kruskal-Wallis test (nonparametric). Results will be presented in tables or statistics. Will be assumed significance level of 5% (± = 0.05). (AU)