Osteoinductive biomaterials—properties and relevance in bone repair

The need for bone tissue regeneration is continuously expanding due to the improvement of life quality and the consequent increase in life expectancy. Although natural bone grafts have shown excellent clinical successes, their use is associated with some important drawbacks, limited availability being one of the most important. Cell‐ and growth‐factor based tissue engineering provides a promising alternative to natural bone grafts; however, the performance of tissue‐engineered constructs often depends on the used carrier.