A Systematic review on Bone grafts and Biomaterials substitutes for Bone Regeneration

Abstract

Bones have the ability to recover small bone defects on its own. However, it has been a huge clinical challenge to fix the complicated bone defects and abnormalities like fractures, delayed unions, non-unions, arthrodesis. In such cases, bone grafting technique is used which replaces missing bone, provides structural support, and improves bone healing. This review focuses on the types of bone grafts, criteria for selecting proper substitute materials for bone grafts and their future. Natural graft includes autograft, allograft, xenograft, and phytogenic materials whereas synthetic graft includes various biomaterials such as polymers, metals, bioactive glass, tricalcium phosphate, and hydroxyapatite. However, for incorporating synthetic bone grafts, it is important to consider some fundamental factors like physical properties, chemical composition, and biological properties that match complex and multifunctional structure of bone. Even though the literature has defined ideal properties of bone grafts three decades ago, the market still has scarcity of biomaterials that reach all of these properties. Moreover, this field also faces challenges like excessive cost. 3D printing, 4D printing, bioinks, multiphasic scaffolds are certain areas in regenerative medicine where investigation is going on spontaneously to achieve desired results.