Fibroblast Growth Factor-2, Bone Homeostasis and Fracture Repair

There remains a great need to develop therapeutic agents to treat critical size defects and non-union fractures and one of the potential agents is recombinant human fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2). We discuss the function of FGF-2 in bone formation, bone resorption, and downstream signaling pathways and review the role of exogenous FGF-2 in fracture healing. The importance of endogenous FGF-2 in bone formation and its potential importance in fracture healing in response to parathyroid hormone (PTH) and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) is described. In addition we will review, FGF-2 signaling crosstalk with Wnt signaling and PTH signaling in bone formation and repair. Finally, we discuss the outstanding unresolved issues in the application of FGF-2 as therapeutic agent for bone regeneration.