Effects of microgravity on bone healing in a rat fibular osteotomy model

Bone healing was investigated histologically in a rat fibular osteotomy model subjected to microgravity (shuttle flight STS-29) and the tail suspension microgravity simulation model. Exposure to microgravity or tail suspension occurred during the last 5 days of a 10-day healing period. Periosteal osteogenesis and the development of vascular channels in both experimental groups were similar to that observed in a weightbearing control group. Chondrogenesis was more advanced in weightbearing rats than in either flight or tail-suspended rats. Angiogenesis in the osteotomy gap was more advanced in weightbearing and tail-suspended rats than in the flight group. These findings suggest that bone healing may be impaired during space travel. Interpretation of the findings is complicated by observations that flight and suspended rats lost weight during the flight period and that suspended rats consumed less water than control rats. Tail suspension did not produce the same pattern of healing as spaceflight; therefore, long-term studies of bone healing, conducted entirely in the microgravity environment, are needed to distinguish metabolic from mechanical influences and to determine whether effective fracture consolidation will occur in the absence of gravitational forces.