Bioactive glasses

Abstract

Bioactive glass (BG) has been gaining much attention as a promising bone repairingmaterial due to its good osteoconductivity and osteoproductivity. The development ofBG has mainly been of three types: melt-derived BG, sol-gel derived BG and micro/nano-bioactive glass (MNBG). The chapter focuses on the recent progress about BGand corresponding BG-based scaffolds. The compositions, structures and propertiesof BG are reviewed, including the mechanism of bioactivity, bone bonding abilityand gene activation. Then, examples of the preparation and properties of MNBGwith controlled morphologies, structure and particle size are presented, obtained byusing sol-gel method combined with template self-assembly. The surface micro/nanostructure and micro/nano size of MNBG effectively enhanced the in vitro apatiteforming bioactivity, cellular attachment, proliferation, differentiation and osteogenicgene expressions compared with the melt-derived BG and sol-gel derived BG.Additionally, some representative BG scaffolds such as melt-derived and sol-gelderived BG scaffolds and BG composites scaffolds are introduced, including thepreparation method, pore structure and relevant properties of various BG scaffolds.