The purpose of the present work was to evaluate in vivo different antimicrobial therapies to eradicate osteomyelitis created in the femoral head of New Zealand rabbits. Five phosphate-based cements were evaluated: calcium phosphate cements (CPC) and calcium phosphate foams (CPF), both in their pristine form and loaded with doxycycline hyclate, and an intrinsic antimicrobial magnesium phosphate cement (MPC; not loaded with an antibiotic). The cements were implanted in a bone previously infected with Staphylococcus aureus to discern the effects of the type of antibiotic administration (systemic vs. local), porosity (microporosity, i.e. <5 μm vs. macroporosity, i.e. >5 μm) and type of antimicrobial mechanism (release of antibiotic vs. intrinsic antimicrobial activity) on the improvement of the health state of the infected animals. A new method was developed, with a more comprehensive composite score that integrates 5 parameters of bone infection, 4 parameters of bone structural integrity and 4 parameters of bone regeneration. This method was used to evaluate the health state of the infected animals, both before and after osteomyelitis treatment. The results showed that the composite score allows to discern statistically significant differences between treatments that individual evaluations were not able to identify. Despite none of the therapies completely eradicated the infection, it was observed that macroporous materials (CPF and CPFd, the latter loaded with doxycycline hyclate) and intrinsic antimicrobial MPC allowed a better containment of the osteomyelitis. This study provides novel insights to understand the effect of different antimicrobial therapies in vivo, and a promising comprehensive methodology to evaluate the health state of the animals was developed. We expect that the implementation of such methodology could improve the criteria to select a proper antimicrobial therapy.

Biomaterials Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering Group Dpt Materials Science and Metallurgy Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Av Eduard Maristany 10 14 08019 Barcelona Spain

CEITEC Central European Institute of Technology Brno University of Technology Brno Czech Republic

Department of Engineering Sciences Science for Life Laboratory Uppsala University Box 534 751 21 Uppsala Sweden

Growth factors and cellular differenciation L'Hospitalet de Llobregat Barcelona Spain

Human Anatomy and Embryology Unit University of Barcelona Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Barcelona Spain

Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia Baldiri i Reixach 10 12 08028 Barcelona Spain

Research Centre in Multiscale Science and Engineering UPC Barcelona Spain

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