FUNDAMENTAL-ASPECTS OF OSTEOINDUCTIVE ACT IVITY OF BONE TISSUE AND ITS POSSIBLE CLINICAL-APPLICATIONS

Osteoinductive polypeptide factors such as the various isoforms of Bon e Morphogenetic Protein described are of increasing scientific and cli nical 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 carrie r materials it seems possible to create osteoinductive implant materia ls and the results of such investigations and some basic aspects of ca rrier materials are summarized. The perspectives of the possible clini cal applications of such composite are presented.