Four weeks after the beginning of treatment, all the rats (n = 20) underwent a mid-diaphyseal transverse osteotomy in the left femur as described previously [24]. Surgery was performed under general anaesthesia (ketamine 75 mg/kg and xylazine 10 mg/kg) and appropriate gaseous anaesthesia using aseptic

Selleckchem AZD1208 techniques. The external fixator system used in this protocol comprises two metal blocks of titanium alloy linked to two cylindrical stainless steel bars. Briefly, the fixator was applied to the craniolateral aspect of the femur using four threaded M1.2 stainless steel pins. Consistent positioning of the fixator pins was ensured using a drill locator template. After pin placement, a transverse osteotomy was created midway between the proximal

and distal pins using an oscillating diamond bone saw, with saline irrigation throughout. The bone fragments were distracted to leave an osteotomy gap of 0.5 mm that was maintained by locking the fixator blocks on to the connecting bars. The rats were administered with 0.1 cc of Vetergesic (Alstoe Ltd, York, UK) for analgesia and 0.05 cc of cephalosporin (Sandoz Ltd, Camberley, UK), as a single dose to prevent infection, post-operatively and were returned to their cages. They were granted mobility immediately after regaining consciousness. Radiographs of the operation site were taken at 4 weeks post-fracture, the time where rats were euthanised under anaesthesia via the delivery of CO2 into an inhalation chamber. Right tibiae were collected for micro-CT analysis of HM781-36B cost cortical and trabecular bone parameters while left osteotomised femora were collected for micro-CT analysis of fracture callus and histology. Micro-CT analysis of mouse and rat tibiae Right tibiae were harvested from 5-month-old OVX female C57BL/6-129Sv mice, fixed in 10 % neural-buffered formalin for 24–72 h and stored in 70 % ethanol at 4 °C. These tibia were then scanned with high-resolution (5 μm pixel size) micro-computed tomography (micro-CT, SkyScan 1172; SkyScan, Kontich, Belgium), as previously described [7]. Right tibiae from the fracture study were dissected from rats, fixed and

stored as above and scanned with a lower Loperamide resolution of 14 μm pixel size due to the size of the bones. The whole tibiae were reconstructed using NRecon v.1.4.4.0 (SkyScan) and bone histomorphometric analyses in two and three dimensions (2D, 3D) were performed by SkyScan software (CT-Analyser v.1.5.1.3). For the analysis of trabecular bone, the cortical shell was excluded by operator-drawn regions of interest and 3D algorithms were used to determine the relevant parameters which included bone volume percentage (BV/TV), trabecular thickness, trabecular number, trabecular spacing, structure model index (SMI), trabecular pattern factor and degree of anisotropy. Analysis of cortical bone was performed using a 0.49-mm-long segment (or 100 tomograms) at 37 % of the tibias’ length from its proximal end.