Drug delivery therapies II: strategies for delivering bone regenerating factors

Abstract

[Excerpt] 1. General overview: The basic requirements for bone-tissue-engineering scaffolds are also valid for delivery systems of bone-regenerating factors, since they are basically both biomaterials. In particular, where the bioactive agent is loaded into the scaffold, all the requirements are applicable, but additional features are crucial in order for it to be possible to design a system where controlled delivery is achieved in terms of kinetics and site-specificity. The carrier should be biochemically inert with respect to osteoinductive protein, it should not interfere with biochemical signaling, is should protect it from non-specific proteolysis, initiate optimal osteogenic activity with low doses of osteoinductive protein and also control its activity, limiting it to the boundaries of the implant [1], [2]. [...]