Histopathological and histomorphometrical effects of atorvastatin on experimental femoral cortical bone defect healing in rats

Bone remodeling has always been the goal of surgeons for a long time. Recently, it was shown that statins that are commonly prescribed for lowering cholesterol also have beneficial effects on bone healing. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the probable effects of atorvastatin on osteogenesis in the rat femur. This experimental study was conducted on 30 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The animals were divided randomly into one control and two experiment groups. After induction of anesthesia, a hole of 2 mm in diameter was made in femur width. The control group received physiological serum but the experiment groups one and two, respectively, received 10 and 20 mg/kg/PO of atorvastatin on daily basis. After euthanizing the rats, histopathological and histomorphometrical evaluations of the bones were performed 45 days after the intervention. In the control group, the defects seemed to be filled with woven bone and bone marrow, depictive of a poor osteogenic activity. In the experiment groups, many osteoblast groupings and young bone trabeculae had been formed and bone trabeculae were more organized. Histomorphometric results, showed that atorvastatin had significantly promoted bone healing in the experiment groups compared with the controls (P<0.001). Moreover, the analysis showed that atorvastatin had more significant effects in group three receiving high doses of the medication in comparison with group two (P<0.001). The findings of this study showed that atorvastatin is capable of stimulating osteogenesis in rats.