Musculoskeletal conditions cost an estimated $254 billion each year in the United States, and bone and joint diseases account for half of all chronic conditions in adults over the age of 50. Current clinical bone replacement strategies use synthetic materials to bridge gaps in bone tissue.  Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings have been shown to enhance bone bonding to implant materials.  However, these coatings typically are unable to actively induce new bone formation.

Emerging approaches for bone repair and replacement therapies have focused on delivering growth factors to skeletal defects, as these biomolecules can induce the formation of bone.  But a practical delivery method has not yet been developed for clinical orthopedic applications.

UW–Madison researchers have developed a novel approach for linking growth factors to the surface of an HA-coated biomaterial.  Their approach uses a modular peptide design with two functional units: a biologically active growth factor portion that can initiate osteogenesis, angiogenesis or osteogenic differentiation and a binding portion that improves the non-covalent binding of the peptide to “bone-like” HA-based biomaterials.  These modular peptides can be used to coat, or “decorate,” biomaterials, providing an improved method of delivering growth factors to skeletal defects.

File Number: P09202US