A semi-synthetic heparan sulfate material that potentiates BMP2-mediated osteogenesis

Heparan sulfate (HS) is a naturally occurring polysaccharide fundamental to eukaryotic life. It is currently under investigation in many contexts for its ability to modulate and potentiate the interactions of proteins in the extracellular matrix. Among other promising applications, heparan sulfate has been investigated as a material for potentiating Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 (BMP2) activity in osteogenesis and bone repair, with encouraging results. However, isolating a structurally consistent, scalable, and economical source of heparan sulfate has been problematic. To address this, a series of semi-synthetic heparan sulfates were prepared from affordable, batch-consistent, commercially available heparin and were evaluated in their structural and BMP2-potentiating properties. These populations were also compared to a population of heparan sulfate previously optimised for bone repair - HS3. We show that a semi-synthetic process generates a heparan sulfate-like material that potentiates BMP2-mediated osteogenesis and warrants further investigation as a material for bone augmentation procedures.