Effect of UV light on the healing of fractured bones in rats

Abstract

Very many people all over the world get their bones fractured due to many factors including fragile bones, road accidents and physical games like football playing. These patients face many problems including high treatment costs and long hospitalization periods. This research was aimed at finding an alternative way to faster and cheaper fractured bone treatment by exposing the fractured bone patients to daily sunlight for longer hours to supplement the currently available fractured bone treatment means which include use of splints and drugs such as bisphosphonates. This treatment was believed to increase the patient’s concentration of vitamin D which could in turn enhance the bone healing process and eliminate the need for longer hospitalization periods. In this experiment, 18 rats were divided into 3 groups of 6 animals per group and these groups were labelled A, B and C representing fractured control, fractured experimental and normal control groups respectively. Animals in group A and B had their right hind limbs fractured and group B animals were kept in direct sunlight for 8 hours each day for a period of 6 weeks. Alkaline phosphatase was measured at the beginning of the experimentation period, midway of the experimentation period and at the end of the experimentation period to provide the information about the progress of fractured bone healing. Results showed that exposing fractured animals to sun’s direct UV-light can enhance the healing of fractured bones. This was indicated by the more increased levels of serum alkaline phosphatase in the fractured experimental groups as compared to the fractured control and the normal control groups during the study. The results also showed that there was an increased levels of alkaline phosphatase in the fractured animals compared to the non-fractured animals. It was as well observed that the levels of alkaline phosphatase in rats increased as the animals grew and decreased when the animals reached full maturity.