Effects of Different Growth Factors on New Bone Formation: A Systematic Review

Background and Aim: Using different osteogenic growth factors, which is still under investigation, is a favorable method for bone regeneration. This systematic review is aimed at evaluating the effects of different growth factors and their carriers on osteogenesis .   Materials and Methods: Electronic databases (Medline, EMBase and Cochrane) were studied by the authors for articles published from 1999 to October 2010. Clinical and animal studies evaluating bone formation by applying a specific growth factor and the related carrier were included in this investigation. Obtained data were organized in a table and evaluated through a qualitative analysis .   Results: Sixty-nine studies most of which evaluated the effects of BMP-2 osteogenesis in different models were included in this study. Totally, twenty-five carriers were applied with different growth factors in the experiments. Among these carriers, poly lactic– co glycolic acid (PLGA), hydroxy apatite/tricalcium phosphate/absorbable collagen sponge (HA/TCP/ACS) and BioOss were the most frequently used carriers with the growth factors in bone regeneration studies.   Conclusion: The current evidence, although not strong enough, confirms that BMP-2 has more favorable results in osteogenesis compared with other factors. The carrier scaffold, methods of measurement (histologic or radiographic), type of animal, defect diameter and the length of follow-up are the variables that should be matched before reaching definite results for the effect of growth factors in bone regeneration