Bioactive Ceramics: Challenges and Perspectives.

Abstract

Bioactive ceramics and related technologies are clearly expanding their applications in clinical bone repairs. One major direction of the current research is toward bioactive materials that overcome the poor mechanical performances of the classical bioactive ceramics. Bioactive surface functionalizations are being endeavored to prepare functionally graded bioactive ceramic surfaces on ceramics and metals with high fracture resistance. Sol-gel derivation of bioactive hybrids aims at bioactive materials with high malleability. These efforts are producing new bone-repairing materials with different mechanical functions. Biomimetic processes are being aspired to produce an uniform bonelike apatite layer on polymers with fibrous macrotextures in acellular simulated body fluid. The final goal of these processes is an apatite-polymer composite which has bonelike three-dimensional structure and consequently reveals bonelike mechanical properties. Another major area is bone tissue engineering which uses the classical bioactive ceramics such as Bioglass®, HA, β-TCP and glass-ceramic A-W. Biological assessments imply that bioactive ceramics are optimal matrices for delivering bone cells and growth factors and stimulating their functions. These two directions may find consensus for better bioactive materials in the near future.