One of the most critical components of building, healing and remodeling bone in humans is a process called osteoinduction. In the 1960s, Dr. Marshall Urist discovered a family of substances in human blood and bones that stimulates the process of osteoinduction in his research at UCLA. He called these substances bone morphogenetic proteins, or BMPs. In the past 15 years, research has progressed and we can now isolate and extract these substance from natural tissues as well as produce them in laboratories. BMPs have been used to stimulate the production of bone in animals and humans with great success.

In spine surgery, especially during spinal fusions, surgeons may opt to use transplanted bone grafts to aid in the healing and remodeling of the spine after surgery. The use of bone grafts can add increased postoperative pain, if the bone is transplanted from one area of the patient's body to another (called autograft), or a chance of disease transmission if the bone is transplanted from one person to another (called allograft). Spine surgeons hope the use of BMP and rhBMP (BMP that is produced in a laboratory) will replace these bone grafts without the drawbacks of grafts.

The  Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of BMPs for anterior spinal fusion in the lumbar spine, and many other clinical trials have found these proteins to be effective in generating bone in other areas of the spine. Current research is also focusing on the most effective method of introducing the substance into the different areas of the spine, experimenting with novel carriers and substitutes that will provide for successful bone formation. The research is ongoing and the spine community is encouraged by BMPs and hopes they may someday be the standard for fusion procedures, reducing postsurgical pain and improve the effectiveness of spinal surgeries.