In vitro evaluation of Zeolite-nHA blended PCL/PLA nanofibers for dental tissue engineering

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) exhibits excellent biocompatibility with soft tissues such as skin, muscle and gums, making it an ideal candidate for orthopedic and dental implants or components of implants. Synthetic HAp has been widely used in repair of hard tissues, and common uses include bone repair, bone augmentation, as well as coating of implants or acting as fillers in bone or teeth. However, the low mechanical strength of normal HAp ceramics generally restricts its use to low load-bearing applications. Recent advancements in nanoscience and nanotechnology have reignited investigation of nanoscale HAp formation in order to clearly define the small-scale properties of HAp. It has been suggested that nano-HAp may be an ideal biomaterial due to its good biocompatibility and bone integration ability. HAp biomedical material development has benefited significantly from advancements in nanotechnology. This feature article looks afresh at nano-HAp particles, highlighting the importance of size, crystal morphology control, and composites with other inorganic particles for biomedical material development. Copyright © 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of bone diseases and trauma in developed and developing countries has increased significantly in the last decades. Bioactive glasses, especially silica-based materials, are called to play a fundamental role in this field due to their osteoconductive, osteoproductive and osteoinductive properties. In the last years, sol-gel processes and supramolecular chemistry of surfactants have been incorporated to the bioceramics field, allowing the porosity of bioglasses to be controlled at the nanometric scale. This advance has promoted a new generation of sol-gel bioactive glasses with applications such as drug delivery systems, as well as regenerative grafts with improved bioactive behaviour. Besides, the combination of silica-based glasses with organic components led to new organic-inorganic hybrid materials with improved mechanical properties. Finally, an effort has been made to organize at the macroscopic level the sol-gel glass preparation. This effort has resulted in new three-dimensional macroporous scaffolds, suitable to be used in tissue engineering techniques or as porous pieces to be implanted in situ. This review collects the most important advances in the field of silica glasses occurring in the last decade, which are called to play a lead role in the future of bone regenerative therapies. Copyright 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.