Use of bone morphogenetic proteins in traumatology

An estimated 5-10% of all fractures show impaired heating, leading to delayed union, or non-union. Chemical, or physical methods to accelerate bone heating are of great interest to the orthopaedic and trauma community. Research over the last 20 years has established that successful fracture heating is steered by specific growth factors. Of these, the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are probably the most important. The signalling pathway of these proteins is tightly regulated, overseeing a finely orchestrated cascade of events that occur after a fracture. The promising results of BMPs in preclinical studies have recently cleared the way for their use in specific fractures, or non-unions in clinical practice. The purpose of this work is to give a brief overview of BMPs and to review the clinical data currently available on the use of BMPs in fracture heating. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.