Although bone has the intrinsic ability to “self-heal”, there are circumstances in which its regenerative capacity is limited or compromised, such as in critical bone defects. In these cases, the lack of osteogenic proteins at the wound site can prevent healing and external stimuli may be necessary to encourage bone growth [1]. Exogenous delivery of proteins and growth factors directly to the wound has been successful in bone regeneration, but is limited by the instability of the proteins and short half-lives. As a result, administration of multiple large doses of protein is necessary to retain a beneficial protein level. Due to these disadvantages, additional methods have been investigated to supply essential proteins to the bone defect [2].

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