An Injectable Implant Material Functionalized with Bioactive BMP-7 Short Peptides for Orthopaedic Applications

摘要

Bone fracture is one of the most common bone diseases. For adults, it may take 6 weeks to achieve a sufficiently mineralized bone fracture healing callus and 3 months to achieve 80% of the normal strength of healthy bone . The long recovery time of bone fractures bring significant pain and inconvenience to patients. It was hoped that orthopaedic implant materials (or fixation devices) could improve the treatment of bone fractures, soft tissue injures and reconstructive surgeries. However, synthetic conventional materials (such as titanium) are lagging in satisfaction. Implant materials used as bone fixation devices have an overall average lifetime of only 10 to 15 years . Thus, many patients require implant removals. This revision operation increases the risk of infection, injury to soft tissue and refracture of bone . Moreover, 5% to 10% of implants fail over a 10-year period. One main reason is the incompatibility between osteoblasts (bone-forming cells) and today’s implantation materials . So, to improve osteoblast adhesion, proliferation and differentiation into bone-forming cells in bone fracture sites, researchers have turned their attention towards biologically-inspired nanostructured materials.