Research trends of cytokines and gene therapy for treating avascular necrosis of the femoral head / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

The treatment of avascular necrosis of the femoral head whose pathological procedure is femoral head avascularity and osteocyte necrosis induced by many etiological factors is one of the difficult subjects in orthopaedics. As a newly-developed technology, cytokines and gene therapy have been widely used in the research of avascular necrosis of the femoral head. Many cytokines and transduced genes have the effects of promoting vascular reconstruction and bone repairment so that it could recover the blood supply and repair the osteonecrosis of femoral heads. Most current researches remain in the experimental phase. Therefore, the research focus in the future comes down to the lengthening of gene transfection expression as well as the selection of vectors and tissue engineering bones that have low immunereaction and low toxicity.