“补肾壮骨”中药应用于骨组织工程支架修复节段性骨缺损.

BACKGROUND: Segmental bone defects are a challenging orthopedic problem and the existing treatment methods are not effective. Bone tissue engineering techniques have shown great potential in the repair of segmental bone defects; however, the osteogenic properties of artificial scaffolds alone are often insufficient to meet the needs of bone defect repair and the loading of growth factors is expensive and unstable. Chinese medicines are widely available and inexpensive and those with the active ingredients of “tonifying kidney and strengthening bones” have the potential to act as exogenous growth factors. Therefore, the composite scaffolds of Chinese medicines have shown good bone tissue repair effects. OBJECTIVE: To introduce several commonly used bone tissue engineering scaffold materials as well as some representative drugs of tonifying kidney and strengthening bones, such as Rhizome Drynariae, Epimedium, and Eucommia, that are used combined with scaffold materials, and discuss the potential of Chinese medicines with the active ingredients of “tonifying kidney and strengthening bones” in the repair of segmental bone defects using bone tissue engineering scaffolds. METHODS: The first author searched for relevant literature (published from 2007 to 2022) regarding the use of Chinese medicines of “tonifying kidney and strengthening bones” in the repair of segmental bone defects using bone tissue engineering scaffolds in CNKI, WanFang, PubMed, and Web of Science. Search terms included “Chinese medicine, Tonifying kidney, Drynariae, Epimedium, Eucommia, Bone defects, Bone repair, Bone tissue engineering, Scaffold” in Chinese and English. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) The existing bone tissue engineering scaffold materials include bioceramic materials, medical metal materials, and polymer materials, which can be used in combination to compensate for the performance deficiencies of a single material as per the difference in their properties. (2) Exogenous growth factors combined with bone tissue engineering scaffolds are highly effective in repairing segmental bone defects, but growth factors are unstable and expensive. (3) Modern pharmacology has found that Chinese medicines of tonifying kidney and strengthening bones can significantly promote the osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, which can replace the role of growth factors in bone tissue engineering scaffolds. (4) The combination of Chinese medicines of tonifying kidney and strengthening bones and its active ingredients with scaffold materials to produce composite scaffolds has shown unique advantages in the repair of segmental bone defects and has great potential for application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]