Skip to main content
International Orthopaedics logoLink to International Orthopaedics
. 2003 Nov 15;28(2):97–101. doi: 10.1007/s00264-003-0524-z

Influence of ethylene oxide sterilization on the activity of native reindeer bone morphogenetic protein

T Pekkarinen 1,2,, O Hietala 1,2, T S Lindholm 1,2, P Jalovaara 1,2
PMCID: PMC3474480  PMID: 15224167

Abstract

We studied the effects of ethylene oxide sterilization (Steri-Vac 4XL, temperature 29°C, exposure time 4 h 10 min, ethylene oxide concentration 860 mg/l) on the osteoinductivity of partially purified native reindeer bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) in a hind leg muscle pouch model of male NMRI mice. BMP was administered in implants containing 3 mg in a collagen carrier. Implants without sterilization and without BMP served as controls. New bone formation was evaluated based on the calcium yield, radiographic and histological examination 3 weeks after implantation. The implants without BMP were not able to induce new bone visible in radiographs. In the sterilized BMP group, the mean area of new bone was 35% (p=0.004) and density 32% (p=0.000) smaller than in the nonsterilized group. Calcium yield was 20% lower in the sterilized group than in the nonsterilized group, but this difference was not significant (p=0.22). It was many times lower in the group without BMP than in the above-mentioned groups (p=0,001). We conclude that ethylene oxide gas sterilization reduces the bone-forming activity of native reindeer BMP by one third.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (171.1 KB).

References


Articles from International Orthopaedics are provided here courtesy of Springer-Verlag

RESOURCES