Growth Factors and Their Clinical Applications / 대한척추외과학회지

ABSTRACT

Growth factor is a polypeptide regulating cell proliferation, maturation, activity, and apoptosis. Despite its small molecular weight, it exerts diverse and potent biologic effects on cellular function. With recent development of molecular biology and vector technology, it is now possible to administer recombinant growth factors in clinical dose and modify somatic cell with growth factor encoding gene. Research fields in spinal surgery can be divided into spinal fusion, disc regeneration and spinal cord regeneration. In this review, we discuss the action mechanism of growth factors and their possible clinical applications especially in the field of spinal fusion and disc regeneration.