Variation of BMP2 Concentration and Its Activity in Bone Grafts Obtained from Patients Undergoing Hip Replacement Surgery.

Aim: Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) is a member of a subgroup of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily and triggers various signaling events which in turn stimulate chondrogenesis, osteogenesis, angiogenesis and extracellular matrix remodeling leading to fracture healing. In this study, we quantified the concentration of BMP2 in fresh human bone grafts obtained from 40 patients undergoing hip replacement surgery. Besides the concentration, the activity of the detected BMP2 was also investigated.

Materials And Methods: In this study, the concentration of BMP2 in fresh human bone grafts obtained from 40 patients undergoing hip replacement surgery was quantified. Human BMP2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and bicinchoninic acid quantification was used to determine the total concentration of protein present in each sample. To determine the activity of the BMP2 found in each bone sample, alkaline phosphatase activity was measured by colorimetric assay.

Results: The amount of BMP2 seemed to vary slightly between the patients. Taking into consideration the patient's gender, we observed that male patients presented slightly more BMP2 in comparison with females. When analyzing the activity of BMP2, we observed that in female patients, the activity was slightly higher in comparison to males. This variation may be caused by a number of factors, including but not limited to gender, age, osteoporosis and previous diseases. This information shows that the osteogenic potential of different bone graft samples is not consistent.

Conclusion: The activity of BMP2 in femur heads obtained from patients undergoing total hip replacement surgery showed significant variation according to gender and age. The measurement of bone proteins activity might be promising as a qualitative method in bone banks and should be further investigated.