Bioactive Glasses

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the development of bioactive glasses as implant materials designed to interfacially bond with bone tissue as components of tissue engineering devices that activate and guide the healing and regeneration of damaged or diseased soft and hard tissue. The main ideas and findings of the almost 50year history of bioactive glasses are discussed, with the main emphasis on the melt-derived silicate-based glasses in clinical use today. In addition, sol–gel glasses and also phosphate and borate glass compositions are introduced. The goal is to cover some fundamental concepts to be taken into account in the development of products consisting of bioactive glasses: 1.Their characterization in vivo and in vitro2.Clinical experiences and physical properties to be taken into account in the fabrication of the end products3.In particular, bioactive glass-based scaffolds for tissue engineering. The development of bioactive glasses will be discussed from the materials science point of view. However, one important goal is to explain the various requirements of bioactive glasses due to their special application areas—implantation inside or in contact with the human body.