Biomaterial-based local delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs, cytokines, and growth factors for bone regeneration
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Large and biologically compromised bone defects remain difficult to repair because structural loss is often accompanied by persistent inflammation, insufficient vascularization, inadequate recruitment of reparative cells, and reduced osteogenic capacity. Biomaterial-based local delivery offers a means of addressing these interacting barriers by retaining therapeutic agents at the defect site, protecting labile bioactive molecules, and controlling the magnitude and duration of local exposure. This review adopts a barrier-oriented and exposure-centered framework that links the dominant biological deficit and stage of healing with therapeutic-agent selection, biomaterial-carrier properties, and local exposure design. We compare major therapeutic categories, scaffold platforms, and strategies for controlling release rate, timing, sequence, spatial distribution, and stimulus responsiveness. Across different bone-defect settings, regenerative performance depends less on maximizing cargo loading, prolonging release, or increasing material complexity than on matching dose, retention, bioactivity, and exposure profile to a defined therapeutic need. Key translational barriers include uncertain dose–exposure relationships, discrepancies between in vitro release and in vivo exposure, manufacturing and sterilization constraints, reproducibility, and limited clinical validation. Future development should prioritize biologically timed, quantitatively defined, reproducible, and clinically practical delivery systems.
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7223306088