Natural Coral Particles (NCPs) are a suitable scaffold material for Guided Bone Regeneration

(GBR) procedures; it combines the placement of a bone substitute supporting a barrier

membrane. Due to increasing sea pollution and the declarations of endangered coral species

(KYOTO 1997), they are no longer suitable for the medical industry. Novel domestic corals have

been grown under controlled conditions to produce cultivated coral graft (CCG) material. This

study aimed to evaluate a new CCG in an in vivo experimental GBR procedure. The calvarias of

8 rabbits were surgically exposed, and circular defects 8 mm in diameter were prepared. One

defect was filled with CCG particles (experimental group); the contralateral defect (control

group) was spontaneously filled by blood clot. The defects were covered with a collagen

membrane. Animals were euthanized after 8 weeks. Histological observations of the defects

showed similar bone growth patterns in both experimental and control osteotomies. In the

experimental defects, no traces of coral particles were observed. Histometric analysis showed

denser bone in the pristine zone (65-66%) than in the peripheral zone for both the control (50%)

and experimental defects (31%) (P= NS). The new bone percentage was reduced from the

peripheral zone toward the middle and the center of the defect (31%, 32% and 27%,

respectively) as the distance from the peripheral pristine bone borders increased. The existing

data support the complete degradation of CCG as space-maintaining scaffold for GBR

procedures.