BIODEGRADABLE HYDROGELS FOR BONE REGENERATION THROUGH GROWTH-FACTOR RELEASE

For successful tissue regeneration, growth factors should be released over a long period of time at the site of action, but their in vivo ha lf-life time is very short. The sustained release of growth factors co uld be achieved by taking advantage of biodegradable hydrogels prepare d from acidic gelatin with an isoelectric point (IEP) of 5.0. When mix ed with this negatively charged gelatin, positively charged growth fac tors ionically interacted at the neutral pH to form a polyion complex. Gelatin hydrogels were enzymatically degraded in the body with time a nd the time profile of growth factor release was in good accordance wi th that of in vivo hydrogel degradation. This indicates that the growt h factor complexed with the acidic gelatin constituting hydrogels was released as a result of their biodegradation. This article briefly ove rviews the in vivo release of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) an d transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) from gelatin hydrogel s.