Synergistic Effects of FGF-2 and BMP-7 in Bone Regeneration for Alveolar Clefts

Abstract

Among cleft palate patients, 75% present with alveolar bone defects1. Alveolar bone is the portion of the jaw bones that contains the sockets where teeth are held. The treatment for alveolar clefts is highly invasive and often causes pain and morbidity at the site where the patients hip bone is harvested to be grafted into the cleft2. Our main goal was to develop an alternative treatment option using a tissue engineering framework. Our preliminary research had three main goals, 1. determine an optimal dose for fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) within the range of 0-10 ng/mL, 2. determine the effects of FGF-2 coupled with bone morphogenic protein-7 (BMP-7), 3. combine the growth factors with induced pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells (iMSC) and nanofibrous spongy microspheres (NF-SMS) to induce new bone growth.