Figure 1. Alendronate treatment accelerates osteonecrosis development.

Wild-type mice were administered alendronate (Ale) or vehicle (PBS) for two weeks. Then, infectious osteomyelitis was established by direct surgical application of 7.5 × 10⁷ (a) or indicated (b–d) colony-forming units (CFU) of Streptococcus aureus (SA) to femurs. After indicated (a) or seven (b–d) days post surgery (post surgery day, PSD), sections of cortical bone were stained with HE, observed microscopically (a-c), and the number of empty versus whole lacunae was scored. Data represents relative proportion of empty versus whole lacunae in cortical bone ± SD (n = 4). Scale bars = 100 μm (upper) and 10 μm (lower panels). **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; NS, not significant. Representative data of at least two independent experiments are shown.