Osteoinduction by biomaterials--physicochemical and structural influences.

Osteoinduction by biomaterials has been shown to be a real phenomenon by many investigators in the last decade. The exact mechanism of this phenomenon is, however, still largely unknown. This in vivo study in goats was performed to get insight into processes governing the phenomenon of osteoinduction by biomaterials and had four main goals: (i) to further investigate the influence of physicochemical properties and structure on biomaterial osteoinductive potential, (ii) to investigate the influence of implant size on the amount of induced bone, (iii) to investigate implantation site dependence, and (iv) to investigate changes occurring on the surface of the material after implantation.