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There are two terms we must understand when discussing how bone grafts work. The first is osteogenic. Osteogenic cells are bone-forming cells. The second term is osteoinductive.
Osteoinductive cells help start or keep the process going that leads to forming new bone cells. Anything that can cause osteogenic cells to form is osteoinductive.
When taken from a bone bank, the bone cells are osteoinductive. The process of sterilizing and freezing bone cells for storage destroys the osteogeneic properties but does not harm their osteoinductive abilities.
Likewise, bone tissue taken from your own body to use as a graft will die at the graft site but not before it sets up a series of steps to form new bone growth. Scientists are also working to develop bone substitutes to speed up the healing process.
For example, special proteins called bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are a new source of osteoinductive molecules. When combined with certain growth factors, BMP reduces infection, improves wound healing, and accelerates bone healing.
The body breaks down the bone graft and replaces it with new bone cells. This process is called creeping substitution. This takes place until all the graft has been resorbed by the body and new bone has replaced it.
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