ABSTRACT
The remarkable discovery of the spontaneous and/or intrinsic osteoinductive activity of coral-derived bioreactors has stressed the connubium of biomaterial sciences with molecular and cellular biology techniques. Cell differentiation and proliferation revealed that the substratum acts as a solid-state matrix for cell attachment, orientation, spreading and osteoblast cell differentiation. Osteoblast differentiation is followed by the expression, synthesis and controlled release of endogenously produced bone morphogenetic proteins. In non-human primates there are limited studies that compare the hydroxyapatite-induced osteogenesis model to autogenous bone grafts, naturally derived or recombinant human bone morphogenetic proteins reconstituted with different calcium phosphate-based macroporous biomatrices for the induction of bone formation in clinical contexts. Research experiments implanting different biomimetic matrices in the rectus abdominis muscle of Papio ursinus using coral-derived and sintered crystalline hydroxyapatites revealed the critical role of the concavity in initiating the induction of bone formation.
