ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: With the development of chemical synthesis technology, the application of anti-osteoporosis drugs incorporated into scaffolds to promote bone regeneration in osteoporotic bone defects has become a hot issue nowadays. OBJECTIVE: To introduce bone tissue engineering scaffolds, and to discuss and summarize the application of the scaffolds carrying anti-osteoporosis drugs for osteogenesis in osteoporotic bone defects. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, Springerlink, Medline, WanFang and CNKI databases were retrieved with "osteoporosis, bone defect, scaffold" as key words for relevant articles published from 2005 to 2017. Initially, 201 articles were retrieved, and finally 64 articles were selected for further analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: With the development of biochemical synthesis technology, various types of tissue-engineered bone scaffolds have been used for the treatment of osteoporotic bone defects. For example, the modified calcium phosphate cement, β-tricalcium phosphate, and hydroxyapatite all can promote bone regeneration. However, the ability of conventional scaffolds to promote bone regeneration is severely damaged under the state of osteoporosis. In this case, an anti-osteoporosis therapy becomes necessary. Considering severe adverse effects of systemic anti-osteoporosis drugs and limited local bone regeneration, the combination of scaffold implantation and local drug delivery can promote osteoporotic bone defect healing. Importantly, to incorporate bone regeneration inducers into scaffolds and steadily release with their biological activity is the key to success. Bisphosphonate, strontium, bone morphogenetic protein 2 and parathyroid hormone, traditional Chinese medicine and mesenchymal stem cells are the drugs commonly combined with tissue-engineered bone scaffolds. With the development of biotechnology, genetically modified stem cell-scaffold composites have gradually appealed to researchers.