Evaluation of bovine bone ash particles for tooth-bearing bone defect healing

Osteogenic repair is highly dependant upon the substrate carrier or matrix. As a part of the effort to develop a suitable scaffold optimizing bone regeneration, we evaluated the efficiency of bovine bone ash particles, prepared by ashing at 600°C for 8 hrs and pulverizing to 150-250 μm size particles, as a scaffold for bone tissue regeneration. The non-cytotoxic bovine bone ash particles, evaluated by Agar over lay test, showed no disturbance in cellular proliferation and osteogenic differentiation in an in vitro cell culture system. Furthermore, the implanted bone ash particles in artificial bone defects on rat mandible revealed favorable biocompatibility and regeneration of bone and dentin associated with bone ash particles. The new bone and reparative dentin were well integrated with bone ash particles. These findings suggest that allogenic bone ash particles composed mainly of hydroxyapatite are applicable for repair of tooth related bone defects as well as pulp damaged tooth repair.