Clinical, histological, and histomorphometrical analysis of maxillary sinus augmentation using inorganic bovine in humans: preliminary results.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate bone formation after maxillary sinus augmentation using bovine bone substitute material Bio-Oss alone by means of clinical, histological, and histomorphometrical examination of human biopsies. Deproteinized bovine bone (DPBB, Bio-Oss) was used to fill cavities after elevation of the sinus mucosa following major sinus pneumatization. Twenty patients with edentulous posterior maxillae were treated with 20 sinus augmentation procedures using a 2-stage technique. Residual lateral maxillary bone height was less than 3 mm. Forty-nine Straumann endosseous implants were used to complete the implant-prosthetic rehabilitation. Forty cylinder-shaped bone biopsies were taken from the augmented maxillary region 8 months after grafting during the second-stage surgery before implant placement. All implants were loaded 3 months after insertion, and no failures were recorded. Histomorphometrical analysis showed an average percentage of newly formed bone of 17.6% (± 2.8%) and a proportion of residual bone substitute material of 29.9% (± 4.9%) of the total biopsy area. Intimate contact between newly formed bone and Bio-Oss was detected along 28.2% (± 6.8%) of the particle surfaces. The results also showed that in all cases, the DPBB granules had been interconnected by bridges of vital newly formed bone. Inorganic bovine bone appears to be biocompatible and osteoconductive, and it can be used with success as a bone substitute in maxillary sinus augmentation procedures.

Inherited connective tissue diseases highlight macromolecular network interdependences in skin extracellular matrix: a histomorphometric study.

Mutation of just a single extracellular matrix protein, a receptor or enzyme involved in connective tissue metabolism is sufficient to cause systemic pathologies and failure of tissues that are subjected to strong mechanical stresses. Skin histological and computerized image analyses can provide a good qualitative and quantitative indication of these inherited connective tissue diseases. In this study, skin biopsies from young (10 to 25 years) and middle-aged patients (26 to 50 years) suffering from Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), Marfan syndrome (MS) or pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) were studied after specific staining of both the collagen and elastic networks. Findings from the histomorphometric analyses conducted on skin sections of the patients with EDS, MS and PXE were compared to skin sections of healthy subjects from the same age groups. Our results show that both the collagen and the elastic networks were affected in all the studied pathological cases, but that the adverse changes to the elastic network in older patients were distinct from the physiological changes observed during aging process for healthy subjects. This degenerative process may be explained by an added phenomenon involving a general connective tissue proteolysis.

Picrosirius red staining: a useful tool to appraise collagen networks in normal and pathological tissues.

Specific staining of the extracellular matrix components is especially helpful in studying tissue remodeling, particularly in the case of connective tissue pathologies. As developed by Junqueira and colleagues in 1979, specific staining by Picrosirius red is one of the most important stains to study collagen networks in different tissues. Under polarized light, collagen bundles appear green, red or yellow, and are easily differentiated from the black background, thus allowing for quantitative morphometric analysis. As Junqueira and colleagues point out, many studies use color staining to differentiate collagen bundles and to specify collagen types, yet other studies report that polarized colors only reflect fiber thickness and packing. Using a simple histological example, our study illustrates the inability of Picrosirius red staining to differentiate collagen types, since the absorbed amount of polarized light by this dye strictly depends on the orientation of the collagen bundles.