No abstract

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are expressed and secreted during fracture repair. Although they are likely to be required for this process, little is known about their physiological role in bone regeneration. Noggin is a protein that specifically binds and inactivates several BMPs. It plays fundamental roles during early embryonal development and limb morphogenesis by this BMP-inactivating activity. This study shows that Noggin can modify bone formation in vivo in the adult animal and, thus, indirectly, that BMP signaling is indispensable in this process. A noggin mutein (hNg⌬B2-Fc) engineered so as to display increased bioavailability was used. Bilateral titanium bone chambers were inserted in 70 rats, and side comparisons for bone formation in the chambers were done. The hNg⌬B2-Fc had no effect on total amount of tissue formed in the chamber but decreased the amount of bone compared with both buffer controls and a control made up of an Fc-tagged IL-6R␣ protein, which had no effects of its own. Also, wild-type noggin inhibited bone formation.

No abstract

We found that OP-1 did not increase the bone density (graft plus new bone) to any substantial extent. However, we can not exclude that this might be due to a carrier problem, since the OP-1 was added as a solution directly to the dry graft.

No abstract