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Calcium phosphate cement with BMP-2-loaded gelatin microspheres enhances bone healing in osteoporosis: a pilot study
Meng Li1, Xingyan Liu, Xudong Liu
1Orthopedic Trauma Institute of CPLA, Lanzhou General Hospital of CPLA, 333 Bing-he-nan Road, Lanzhou, 730050, Gansu Province, People's Republic of China.
Background:
The capacity for bone healing reportedly is limited in osteoporosis with a less than ideal environment for healing of bone grafts. We therefore developed a composite bone substitute with rhBMP-2 loaded gelatin microsphere (GM) and calcium phosphate cement (CPC) to use in osteoporosis.
Questions/Purposes:
We asked whether (1) controlled release of rhBMP-2 could be improved in this composite bone substitute and (2) increasing factors released from the bone substitute could accelerate osteoporotic bone healing.
Methods:
We soaked rhBMP-2/GM/CPC and rhBMP-2/CPC composites in simulated body fluid for 28 days and then determined the amount of rhBMP-2 released. Both composites were implanted in bone defects of osteoporotic goats and left in place for 45 and 140 days; the specimens then were evaluated mechanically (pushout test) and morphologically (CT scanning, histology).
Results:
The in vitro study showed the new composite released more rhBMP-2 compared with rhBMP-2/CPC. CT showed the defects healed more quickly with new grafts. The bone mineralization rate was greater in rhBMP-2/GM/CPC than in rhBMP-2/CPC after 45 days of implantation and the pushout test was stronger after 45 and 140 days of implantation.
Conclusions:
The new graft composite released more loaded factors and appeared to repair osteoporotic bone defects.
Clinical Relevance:
These preliminary data suggest the new composite can be used as a bone substitute to accelerate healing of fractures and bone defects in osteoporosis.
