[Fundamental aspects of osteoinductive activity of bone tissue and potential clinical application]

Osteoinductive polypeptide factors such as the various isoforms of Bone Morphogenetic Protein described are of increasing scientific and clinical interest because of the great progress in this field of skeletal biology recently achieved. In a review some fundamental chemical and biological aspects of bone and its endogenous osteoinductive activity including isolation and assay of osteoinductive factors are described. Through combination of osteoinductive factors with appropriate carrier materials it seems possible to create osteoinductive implant materials and the results of such investigations and some basic aspects of carrier materials are summarized. The perspectives of the possible clinical applications of such composite are presented.