Growth factor is a polypeptide regulating cell proliferation, maturation, activity, and apoptosis. Despite its small molecular weigh, it exerts diverse and pote
nt biologic effects on cellular function. With recent development of molecular biology and vector technology, it is now possible to administer recombinant growt
h factors in clinical dose and modify somatic cell with growth factor encoding gene. Research fields in spinal surgery can be divided into spinal fusion. disc regeneration and spinal cord regeneration. In this review, we discuss the action mechanism of growth factors and their possible clinical applications especially
in the field of spinal fusion and disc regeneration.