Fig. 6.

Surgical procedure and radiological evaluation of materials implanted in rabbit femoral condyles. Femoral condyle location (A) and exposure (B), bone cavity drilling (C), bone cement injection (D), and wound closure (E) (6 rabbits in each group). Postoperative X-ray radiography performed after surgery indicated that PBC (F), PGBCs (G), and PGBCm (H) could fill the bone cavity well, and no inflammatory signs were detected. Bone regeneration surrounding PBC (I), PGBCs (J), and PGBCm (K) was analysed by micro-CT scanning at 4 and 16 weeks after surgery. The bone formation (pseudocolour yellow) in the ROI was compared using the microstructural parameters BV/TV (L), Tb.N (M) and Tb.Sp (N) (n ​= ​3). PBC, PGBCs and PGBCm were reconstructed using the pseudocolour grey. (∗ and ∗∗ indicate P ​< ​0.05 and P ​< ​0.01 compared to the PBC group; # indicates P ​< ​0.05 compared to the PGBCm group. Data are presented as the mean ​± ​standard deviation. The scale bar is 1 ​cm for surgical image A-E. The scale bar is 2 ​cm for the lowest extremity and 1 ​cm for standard anterior-posterior and lateral X-ray radiography. The scale bar is 1 ​cm for the reconstructed femur condyle with implanted material and 5 ​mm for the reconstructed materials and surrounded bone tissues shown in dotted boxes in I, J, K). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)