LR-PRP-saturated bioactive bovine-derived decellularized pericardium accelerates osteogenesis in a rabbit bone defect model

Combining decellularized biological scaffolds with PRP can prevent the rapid inactivation of growth factors and achieve their controlled and sustained release during tissue regeneration. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the combined effect of decellularized bovine pericardium (dBP) and leukocyte-rich platelet-rich plasma (LR-PRP) on the bone repair in a rabbit femoral defect model. Bovine pericardium was decellularized using the Trypsin-Triton X-SDS protocol and histologically assessed. Unicortical bone defects were surgically created in the femur of rabbits (n = 6) and randomly assigned to three treatment allocations: (1) untreated control, (2) LR-PRP, and (3) LR-PRP + dBP-treated defects. Bone defect healing was evaluated using quantitative computed tomography (CT) and histopathological analyses. The dBP achieved 99.2% nucleus removal, retained about 34.3% of the sulfated glycosaminoglycan, and maintained a collagen content similar to the native pericardia. The CT voxel values of the defects treated with the LR-PRP + dBP increased by +33.2% and +56.2% at 2 and 4 weeks after surgery, respectively, compared to the control defects. As well, a significant rise in the CT values was observed in the LR-PRP + dBP treatment compared to the LR-PRP treatment alone at 2 weeks (p = 0.03) and 4 weeks (p = 0.02). Histopathologically, the LR-PRP + dBP treatment achieved higher bone repair scores with a significantly higher nascent bone area fraction (87.8%) compared to the LR-PRP (54%). These findings highlight the synergistic effect of dBP and LR-PRP, offering promising prospects in developing biocompatible scaffolds for enhancing bone repair.