The study entitled “Temporal and Spatial Expression of Bone Morphogenetic Proteins In Extracorporeal Shockwave-Promoted Healing Of Segmental Defect” (Full Article) I am finding that the effects of ESW may be better for osteogenesis than chondrogenesis.

Analysis: What we see is that the ESW therapy applied on induced femur defects resulted in mesenchymal aggregation, hypertrophic chondrogenesis, ossification. They all showed intensive levels of antigen expression in the cell’s nucleus. You have rats with defects have the ESW used at 500 impulses at 0.16 mJ/mm^2. The femurs that got the treatment had more mesenchymal cell aggregation, hypertrophic chondrogenesis, and more ossification. The BMP-2, 3, and 4 have some form of immunoreactivity. They conclude that somehow the BMP plays a role in ESWT to lead to cell proliferation and bone defect regeneration.

The first page of the study article was clipped and posted below.