Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The therapy for limb defects caused by injury, infection, tumor excision and congenital diseases is one of the commonest and most thorny problems in orthopedic clinics.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the biological characteristics of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the mechanism of composite artificial bone and the application of regional gene therapy in bone defects.
METHODS: A computer-based online search of CNKI database and Pubmed database from January 1999 to December 2009 was performed for relative articles about VEGF and bone defect repair, with key words of “VEGF, Bone defect, Bone substitute, Gene therapy” in English and in Chinese by screening titles and abstracts. The documents that associated with VEGF and bone defect repair were selected, and those published recently or in authoritative journals were preferred in the same field.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Totally 285 articles were obtained in initial retrieval, 45 articles of them were chosen to summarize based on inclusion criteria. VEGF is a special growth factor promoting vascular permeability and angiogenesis, and it plays close coordination role between angiogenesis and osteogenesis in the growth, development and reconstruction of bone. Present artificial bone materials only have characteristics of conducting osteogenesis. Thus improving the angiogenesis of artificial bone materials can promote the formation of bone tissue with abundant blood supply.