Delivering on the promise of bone morphogenetic proteins

The advent of bone growth factors has been widely anticipated since their s uccessful production using recombinant DNA technology. Bone morphogenetic p roteins (BMPs) are an im porta nt class of bone growth factors and will be the focus of this article. In the near future these therapeutics might revo lutionize how clinicians treat such diverse orthopedic applications as the healing of broken bones, increasing bone density lost th rough aging, and s trengthening the spine. These potent proteins require application directly at the site of repair via a delivery system, The choice of delivery system has a profound effect on the clinical outcome. In the past decade, research ers have focused on developing efficient delivery systems and advancing the se factors from the bench to the clinic.