Cell-mediated and direct gene therapy for bone regeneration

Abstract

Introduction: Bone regeneration is required for the treatment of fracture non/delayed-unions and bone defects. However, most current treatment modalities have limited efficacy, and newer therapeutic strategies, such as gene therapy, have substantial benefit for bone repair and regeneration.

Areas covered: This review discusses experimental and clinical applications of cell-mediated and direct gene therapy for bone regeneration. The review covers literature on this subject from 2000 to February 2012.

Expert opinion: Direct gene therapy using various viral and non-viral vectors of cell-mediated genes has been demonstrated to induce bone regeneration, although use of such vectors has shown some risk in human application. Osteoinductive capability of a number of progenitor cells isolated from bone marrow, fat, muscle and skin tissues, has been demonstrated by genetic modification with osteogenic genes. Cell-mediated gene therapy using such osteogenic gene-expressing progenitor cells has shown promising results in promoting bone regeneration in extensive animal work in recent years.

Keywords::

• bone morphogenetic protein
• bone regeneration
• gene therapy
• stem cells

Notes

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.