Improving intraoperative storage conditions for autologous bone grafts: An experimental investigation in mice.

Autologous bone grafts constitute the second most transplanted tissue in medicine today. The viability, and consequently the osteogenic capacity, of an autograft is directly impacted by the interval between harvest and transplantation, but how the temperature and the solution in which the graft is held intraoperatively affect viability is not clear. Using a syngeneic mouse model and in vivo bone-forming assays, these variables were tested for their effects on programmed cell death, osteoprogenitor cell proliferation, and the ability of the autograft to ultimately produce new bone in an ectopic site. Based on these results, the intraoperative treatment with a WNT protein therapeutic was tested for its effects on the viability and osteogenic capacity of an autograft. Viability, programmed cell death, mitotic activity, osteogenic protein expression, and bone-forming capacity were assessed. Experimental results demonstrated that the osteogenic capacity of an autograft is significantly improved by intraoperative storage in L-WNT3A at physiological temperature.