The effects of the ovariectomy on the morphometrical and biomechanical properties of femur in the rabbit

SUMMARYMuch of the progress in prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, which is animportant public health problem, is supplied by using the suitable animal models. Althoughthere is a good correlation between the results of human and animal modeling studies, nosingle animal model can be equivalence for the primer osteoporosis in human. Rabbit is themost popular animal for various orthopedic studies, but it is interesting that there has beenfound limited number of the studies on primer osteoporosis in this animal. In this study, it wasaimed to record the some differences between intact and ovariectomized rabbits in respect tobone mineral density, the biomechanic and morphometric properties of rabbit femur.In this study, 24 New Zealand rabbits at six months age were used. The 12 animals wereovariectomized and the other 12 animals were sham group. In two and four months after theoperation bone mineral density was evaluated by DEXA (Ge Lunar DPX) under the generalanesthesia in the six animals from each group. Then the animals were sacrificed and the bonemineral density was reevaluated by DEXA on the femora. The morphometric measurementsof femur were taken with the aid of digital calipers while the sectional measurements weretaken with the aid of AutoCAD program by using images of computed tomography. For thebiomechanical properties, the indentation test was applied to the cancellous bone samplesfrom condylus femoris while the three-point bending testing was applied to the cortical boneof corpus femoris.In conclussion, the osteoporotic changes were not idendical at two months, but they werenoticeable at four months after the operation in the rabbits. The values of this study reflectedthe bone mineral density, biomechanic and morphometric properties of the femur inovariektomized and intact female rabbits. It was hoped that this data has supplied a valuableknowledge for the researchers who may use the rabbits as an animal model in diagnosis andtreatment methods for the primer osteoporosis.