Sustained delivery of a heterodimer bone morphogenetic protein-2/7 via a collagen hydroxyapatite scaffold accelerates and improves critical femoral defect healing
Acta Biomaterialia., 2023.
YangLiu, Manoj Puthia, Eamon J. Sheehy, Ines Ambite, Jitka Petrlova, Sujeethkumar Prithviraj, Maria Wimer Oxborg, Sujeesh Sebastian, Corina Vater, Stefan Zwingenberger, André Struglics, Paul E. Bourgine, Fergal J. O’Brien, Deepak Bushan Raina
Abstract
Despite the glimmer of hope provided by the discovery and commercialization of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) as a bone graft substitute, side effects related to the use of supraphysiological doses have hindered its clinical usage. In this study, we compared the osteoinductive potential of BMP-2 ho- modimer with a heterodimer of BMP-2/7, both delivered via a collagen-hydroxyapatite (CHA) scaffold de- livery system, with the aim to reduce the overall therapeutic BMP doses and the associated side-effects. We first show that the incorporation of hydroxyapatite in collagen-based BMP delivery systems is pivotal for achieving efficient BMP sequestration and controlled release. Using an ectopic implantation model, we then showed that the HA+BMP-2/7 was more osteoinductive than CHA+BMP-2. Further evaluation of the molecular mechanisms responsible for this increased osteoinductivity at an early stage in the re- generation process indicated that the CHA+BMP-2/7 enhanced progenitor cell homing at the implantation site, upregulated the key transcriptomic determinants of bone formation, and increased the production of bone extracellular matrix components. Using fluorescently labelled BMP-2/7 and BMP-2, we demon- strated that the CHA scaffold provided a long-term delivery of both molecules for at least 20 days. Finally, using a rat femoral defect model, we showed that an ultra-low dose (0.5 μg) of BMP-2/7 accelerated frac- ture healing and performed at a level comparable to 20-times higher BMP-2 dose. Our results indicate that the sustained delivery of BMP-2/7 via a CHA scaffold could bring us a step closer in the quest for the use of physiological growth factor doses in fracture healing.