Experimental posterolateral spinal fusion with porous ceramics and mesenchymal stem cells

Aternatives to autogenous bone graft for spinal fusion have been investigated for many years. It has been shown that osteoconductive materials alone do not give a rate of fusion which is comparable to that of autogenous bone graft. We analysed the effectiveness of porous ceramic loaded with cultured mesenchymal stem cells as a new graft material for spinal fusion in an animal model.Posterolateral fusion was carried out at the L4/L5 level in 40 White New Zealand rabbits using one of the following graft materials: porous ceramic granules plus cultured mesenchymal stem cells (group I); ceramic granules plus fresh autogenous bone marrow (group II); ceramic granules alone (group III); and autogenous bone graft (group IV). The animals were killed eight weeks after surgery and the spines were evaluated radiographically, by a manual palpation test and by histological analysis.The rate of fusion was significantly higher in group I compared with group III and higher, but not significantly, in group I compared with ...