stereological measurement of histopathological changes in subcomponents of mandibular bone trabeculae after mechanical trauma in zoledronate-induced rats

Introduction: stereological methods to measure structural changes play an important role for diagnosing and evaluating the healing process of diseases in organs. zoledronate, used to treat bone diseases, causes osteonecrosis of the jaw following mechanical injuries and is a challenge in clinical settings. this experiment aimed to investigate histopathological changes in subcomponents of mandibular bone trabeculae after mechanical trauma in zoledronate-induced rats by using stereological methods.materials and methods: fifty female rats (220-270g) were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. 25 rats in the experimental group were injected 0.06 mg/kg zoledronic acid (za) intraperitoneally, and 25 animals in the control group were injected saline. injection was performed once a week for 8 weeks, and then dental extraction was done for each animal. four weeks after extraction, the rats were euthanized and the right hemimandibles were removed, decalcified, cut into serial sections at 5 microns, stained with hematoxylin-eosin, and subjected to stereological analyses. data were analyzed by using spss version 26.results: the volume of bone matrix and empty lacunae was significantly higher in experimental rats than that in controls four weeks after extraction (p < 0.05). reduction of the volume of osteocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, and howship’s lacunae in experimental group was observed when compared with the controls (p < 0.05).conclusion: the stereological methods in the present study provided a standardized and reproducible methodology for quantitative analysis of histopathological changes and can be used as a basis for future studies investigating preventive or therapeutic strategies for medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (mronj) that are evidence-based and associated with accurate and valid data.