The impact of immobilization of BMP-2 on PDO membrane for bone regeneration Ji-Eun Kim, 1 Eun-Jung Lee, 2 Hyoun-Ee Kim, 2 Young-Hag Koh, 3 Jun-Hyeog Jang 1 1 Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Inha University, Incheon 400-712, Republic of Korea 2 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, 599 Gwanak-Gu, Seoul 151-744, Republic of Korea 3 Department of Dental Laboratory Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 136-703, Republic of Korea Received 16 August 2011; revised 23 November 2011; accepted 22 December 2011 Published online 6 March 2012 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.34089 Abstract: Poly(dioxanone) (PDO) is colorless, crystalline, a biodegradable synthetic polymers that is used for biomedical applications, such as surgical sutures, cardiovascular applica- tions, orthopedics, and plastic surgery. Recently, bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is widely used for bone tis- sue engineering. For the first time we report here on the in vitro performance of an electrospun PDO membrane immobilized with BMP-2. Immobilized BMP-2 on PDO mem- brane enhanced ALPase activity, the osteogenic differentia- tion gene expressions as well as cell attachment, except cell proliferation when compared to that of PDO membrane alone. These results suggest that PDO membrane with BMP-2 is helpful to promote bone healing and regeneration. V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 100A: 1488–1493, 2012. Key Words: poly(dioxanone), biodegradation, bone morpho- genetic protein-2, in vitro, bone How to cite this article: Kim J-E, Lee E-J, Kim H-E, Koh Y-H, Jang J-H. 2012. The impact of immobilization of BMP-2 on PDO membrane for bone regeneration. J Biomed Mater Res Part A 2012:100A:1488–1493. INTRODUCTION A various materials such as metals, ceramics, glass, and polymers belongs to the delivery carrier material for tissue engineering. Particularly, polymers can be attributed to the inherent flexibility in synthesis or modification. Moreover, polymers also have appropriate physical and mechanical properties for various tissues or organs. They have been extensively investigated for medical uses and other related applications. Among polymers, biodegradable polymers are materials with great potential for use in surgery and osteo- synthesis. 1 These biodegradable polymers include poly(cap- rolactone) (PCL), 2 poly(glycolic acid) (PGA), 3 and poly(lactic acid) (PLA). 4 The degradation products are involved in tissue injury in fixed biomedical applications. Among widely used biode- gradable polymers, poly(dioxanone) (PDO) is a polymer of multiple repeating ether–ester units and a colorless, semi- crystalline, nontoxic polymer prepared by the ring-opening polymerization of p-dioxanone. In addition, PDO has a melt- ing point around 127.1  C and glass transition temperature (T g ) around 10 to 0  C. PDO is widely used for use in monofilament sutures. The structure of PDO demonstrates greater flexibility in comparison with PGA and poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA). 1,5 Degradation of PDO exert via hydrolysis, because the diffusion of the low-molecular complements occurs by breaking of ester bonds in the PDO structure. 6,7 In earlier study, these polymers utilize for drug delivery application, the drug release pattern of protein from these polymer shows a marked initial burst release followed by a slow continuous release. 1 Various growth factors (GFs) regulate cellular prolifera- tion, differentiation, migration, adhesion, and gene expres- sion. Among them, bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) has 16 different types and belongs to the transforming growth factor (TGF) super family. BMP-2 shares a high degree of homology within the C-terminal 7-cysteine domain. 8 Recombinant human BMP-2 in E. coil has a dimer molecular weight of 26 kDa. 9 Generally, BMP-2 has known to regulate osteogenesis, leading to osteoblastic bone formation and bone regeneration. 8,10 In addition, BMP-2 demonstrates bene- ficial effect on bone regeneration in vivo. 11–14 However, GF has a short biological half-life, a lack of long-term stability, tissue-selective, and possibly toxic. Therefore, GFs such as BMP-2 needs to be a controllable and a sustainable delivery material. Various carriers for BMP-2 have been developed that regeneration of bone in structural defects. Particularly, synthetic polymer in vivo or in vitro experiment have focused primarily on the poly(a-hydroxy acid) family of polymer. 15 Correspondence to: J.-H. Jang; e-mail: juhjang@inha.ac.kr Contract grant sponsor: The Korea Healthcare technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea; contract grant number: A110416 Contract grant sponsor: Inha University Research Grant 1488 V C 2012 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.