title: Bone graft substitutes for spine fusion: A brief review.
abstract: Bone graft substitutes are widely used in the field of orthopedics and are extensively used to promote vertebral fusion. Fusion is the most common technique in spine surgery and is used to treat morbidities and relieve discomfort. Allograft and autograft bone substitutes are currently the most commonly used bone grafts to promote fusion. These approaches pose limitations and present complications to the patient. Numerous alternative bone graft substitutes are on the market or have been developed and proposed for application. These options have attempted to promote spine fusion by enhancing osteogenic properties. In this review, we reviewed biology of spine fusion and the current advances in biomedical materials and biological strategies for application in surgical spine fusion. Our findings illustrate that, while many bone graft substitutes perform well as bone graft extenders, only osteoinductive proteins (recombinant bone morphogenetic proteins-2 and osteogenic protein-1) provide evidence for use as both bone enhancers and bone substitutes for specific types of spinal fusion. Tissue engineered hydrogels, synthetic polymer composites and viral based gene therapy also holds the potential to be used for spine fusion in future, though warrants further investigation to be used in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Ashim Gupta, Benjamin J Main, Saadiq F El-Amin III, Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL 62794, United States.
authors.forename: Ashim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Ashim Gupta, Benjamin J Main, Saadiq F El-Amin III, Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL 62794, United States.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kukkar
authors.affiliation: Ashim Gupta, Benjamin J Main, Saadiq F El-Amin III, Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL 62794, United States.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sharif
authors.affiliation: Ashim Gupta, Benjamin J Main, Saadiq F El-Amin III, Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL 62794, United States.
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Main
authors.affiliation: Ashim Gupta, Benjamin J Main, Saadiq F El-Amin III, Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL 62794, United States.
authors.forename: Christine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Albers
authors.affiliation: Ashim Gupta, Benjamin J Main, Saadiq F El-Amin III, Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL 62794, United States.
authors.forename: Saadiq F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: El-Amin Iii
keywords: Allograft; Autograft; Bone enhancers; Bone graft substitutes; Spine fusion