Role of growth factors in the incorporation of unloaded bone allografts in the goat

Revision of a failed total joint replacement often demands bone grafting methods to restore deficient bone stock. However, impaired allograft incorporation can be the result of inadequate host or graft properties. The stimulation of bone healing with growth factors could provide a new approach to deal with this problem. The repeated sampling bone chamber was used in the goat to investigate the properties of bone allografts enriched with transforming growth factor-beta, recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2, and basic fibroblastic growth factor under unfavorable vascular and nonloaded conditions. Ten goats each had three bone chambers implanted in the medial proximal tibia. Different carrier allograft bone preparations were used for each growth factor based on convention and previously reported results. The period between implantation and chamber harvest was 8 weeks. The concentrations of the growth factors used was 0, 1, or 10 micrograms of transforming growth factor-beta 2, 0, 1, or 5 micrograms of bone morphogenetic protein-2, and 0, 40, 200 ng of basic fibroblastic growth factor. The specimens were analyzed histomorphometrically for the amount of soft tissue ingrowth, bone ingrowth, and the number of osteoclasts. In all specimens, a resorption front grew into the graft followed by fibrovascular tissue and, in some instances, bone. In the 5 micrograms of bone morphogenetic protein-2 specimens, larger amounts of soft tissue and woven bone were present, whereas in the specimens that received 10 micrograms of transforming growth factor-beta 2, there was a decrease in the amount of tissue and bone ingrowth. Two hundred nanograms of basic fibroblastic growth factor had a negative effect on soft tissue formation but increased the amount of vascular elements containing erythrocytes. The number of osteoclasts was higher in the 5-microgram bone recombinant human morphogenetic protein-2 specimens. In the clinical arena with absence of good perigraft vascularization and loading, bone morphogenetic protein-2 may have a strong stimulatory effect on bone graft incorporation.