Bioactive glass and glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Bioactive glasses and glass-ceramics are a diverse group of materials possessing a unique set of physicochemical properties that make them useful for bone repair. Scaffolds for bone tissue engineering are subject to many requirements including biocompatibility, osteogenesis, biodegradability, and mechanical competence, all of which must be considered in the design features. This chapter addresses various scaffold fabrication techniques for melt-derived and sol-gel-derived compositions, polymer-based organic-inorganic composites, calcium phosphate-based inorganic-inorganic composites, bioactive bone cements, scaffolds based on glass compositions containing specific therapeutic ions, and hybrid materials where the organic and inorganic phases interact at the molecular level. The most important achievements, challenges and potential solutions, as well as the most promising areas of future research involving bioactive glasses and glass-ceramics for bone tissue engineering are presented.