Bone regeneration based on growth factor releasing polymer composites

Abstract

Overall, this thesis clearly highlights the potential of polymeric composites as growth factor delivering scaffolds for bone regeneration. It shows that polymeric microspheres can be used to locally deliver growth factors from the composite while maintaining their bioactivity. The diversity of physicochemical properties of polymers allows tailoring of the growth factor release profile from the delivery vehicle and the creation of a construct capable of releasing two growth factors independent from each other. These features provide the research community with excellent tools to identify the optimal amounts, ratio, timing and release sequence of various growth factors and will help optimizing the bone regeneration process to ensure consistent success for future clinical applications.