Gene-based approaches to bone regeneration

Abstract

Bone, despite its strength, is a fragile tissue that often fails under a variety of conditions. While biological therapies for stimulation of bone formation and repair have advanced to clinical practice, gene delivery is alternatively explored to provide more cost-effective and efficacious therapies. Due to safety concerns associated with viral gene carriers, non-viral gene carriers are actively developed to realize the dream of safe and efficient bone repair based on gene therapy. This chapter will summarize the recent gene therapy attempts, focusing on outcomes in key studies involving animal models. Carriers derived from synthetic materials will be first reviewed, followed by efforts to utilize gene activated matrices. Direct injection of genes and gene-modified matrices will be subsequently summarized, followed by physical methods of forced gene expression, electroporation and sonoporation, with select examples. We conclude with the authors’ perspective on the future of gene therapy for bone repair.