The osteogenic potential of seaweed: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Recently seaweeds have gained intense interest as a source for developing seaweed compound-based therapies for bone growth. While several seaweed compounds were tested in pre-clinical models, an overview article of their osteogenic potential is currently lacking. A search was performed in May 2023 of Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and other references. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted based on the PRISMA statement. SYRCLE's Risk of Bias (RoB) tool was used to evaluate article quality. Twenty-five articles were included in this evaluation: 22 in small, and 3 in large animals. Meta-analysis was performed on 11 studies. Small animals showed significantly higher new bone formation for seaweed compound vs. control treatment. In comparison, the large animal studies reported significantly lower new bone formation for seaweed but similar outcomes compared with autogenous bone for seaweed composites. Fourteen articles provided a trend for better osteogenicity with seaweed, though only based on qualitative analysis. Twenty-one studies showed low and four moderates RoB. In conclusion, seaweed compounds may be able to facilitate bone growth, however, the purification of osteogenic compounds from crude seaweed should be actively pursued, and the number and quality of studies in this field need to be increased.