Bone healing process in critical-sized defects by rhBMP-2 using poloxamer gel and collagen sponge as carriers

The bone morphogenetic protein type 2, is an osteoinduction protein, but new carriers to improve its actions are being studied in recent researches. The objective of this study was to evaluate the poloxamer gel as potential carrier of the rhBMP-2 during the bone healing process and verify if the collagen sponge can improve this process. Fifty-six male Wistar rats were used, which were divided into two groups, considering two periods of time. Thus, each one of these groups was divided in four groups with seven animals each, according to the treatment and the defect filled by 4 μg rhBMP-2 in aqueous solution, 4 μg rhBMP-2 in aqueous solution + collagen sponge, 4 μg rhBMP-2 combined with poloxamer gel, and 4 μg rhBMP-2 combined with poloxamer gel + collagen sponge. After 2 and 4 weeks, respectively, animals were perfused and the hemi-mandibles removed for histological analysis. Statistical analysis of the data showed significant difference between all analyzed groups (p < 0.01), and between the periods of time (p = 0.0118). There was no interaction between the applied treatment and considered periods of time (p = 0.642). Results showed that the rhBMP-2 used in this study was able to induce bone regeneration and had its action optimized when combined to the used carriers, being the bone repair time-dependent.