Effect of Alendronate on Healing of Bone Defect and Gingival Tissue in Osteopenic Rats

The aim was to evaluate bone repair and gingival tissue repair in osteopenic rats. Fifteen female wistar rats were included; in all of them ovariectomy was realized to induce osteopenia; after 45 days, the animals were submitted to 2 surgical techinques 1) dental extraction of the upper central incisor with no socket preservation and 2) 5 mm cranial defect in the calvarium; 5 rats were included in the control group (G1) withput alendronate application; in the group 2 (G2) was used subcutenous alendronate (0.5 mg/kg) once for three weeks and then was realizd the both surgical techniques. In group 3 (G3), after ovariectomy was realized the both dental extraction and the calvarium defect and after that was realized the alendronate protocol. In each group, after six week was realized euthanasia and descriptive histological analysis of the surgical areas involved. In bone formation of the 5 mm cranial defect was observed with good progression in the 3 experimental models and no modification in quality of bone repair was observed. For the gingival tissue in the extraction socket, no differences were observed between G1 and G3. On other hand, in G2 a thinner and reduced gingival epithelium was found. Our results showed that alendronate was not an obstacle for bone repair; deficiencies in re-epithelialization of oral mucosa show the impact of alendronate before dental extraction.