Calcium Orthophosphate-Based Bioceramics

Abstract

Various types of grafts have been traditionally used to restore damaged bones. In the late 1960s, a strong interest was raised in studying ceramics as potential bone grafts due to their biomechanical properties. A bit later, such synthetic biomaterials were called bioceramics. In principle, bioceramics can be prepared from diverse materials but this review is limited to calcium orthophosphate-based formulations only, which possess the specific advantages due to the chemical similarity to mammalian bones and teeth. During the past 40 years, there have been a number of important achievements in this field. Namely, after the initial development of bioceramics that was just tolerated in the physiological environment, an emphasis was shifted towards the formulations able to form direct chemical bonds with the adjacent bones. Afterwards, by the structural and compositional controls, it became possible to choose whether the calcium orthophosphate-based implants remain biologically stable once incorporated into the skeletal structure or whether they were resorbed over time. At the turn of the millennium, a new concept of regenerative bioceramics was developed and such formulations became an integrated part of the tissue engineering approach. Now calcium orthophosphate scaffolds are designed to induce bone formation and vascularization. These scaffolds are often porous and harbor different biomolecules and/or cells. Therefore, current biomedical applications of calcium orthophosphate bioceramics include bone augmentations, artificial bone grafts, maxillofacial reconstruction, spinal fusion, periodontal disease repairs and bone fillers after tumor surgery. Perspective future applications comprise drug delivery and tissue engineering purposes because calcium orthophosphates appear to be promising carriers of growth factors, bioactive peptides and various types of cells.

RALA complexed α-TCP nanoparticle delivery to mesenchymal stem cells induces bone formation in tissue engineered constructs in vitro and in vivo

“…Even though use of CaP based nanoparticles as carriers for intracellular delivery of nucleic acids has been explored for 40 years, the inherent osteogenic effect of calcium and phosphate ions released from such particles has not been considered in the majority of the studies. This is despite the fact that several studies have separately reported the osteoinductive properties of CaP based agglomerates and bulk scaffolding materials 26,27,59 .…”

Multifunctional materials for bone cancer treatment

“…70 Apatitebased materials are extensively used as bone filler/ grafts. [148][149][150] This is why many drugdelivery systems designed for bonedisease treatment are based on hydroxyapatite. For instance, hydroxyapatite/cisplatin drugdelivery systems were obtained and tested as delivery systems of different platinum complexes.…”

The Potential Impact of Bone Tissue Engineering in the Clinic

“…More than two million bone graft procedures are performed annually worldwide, of which almost 1.6 million bone grafts are performed in the USA alone [1,2]. In 2010, revenue generated from the use of allogeneic and alloplastic bone graft substitutes was approximately US$1.3 billion in the USA, and is expected to rise to US$2.3 billion by the end of 2017 [3,4]. The standard of care treatment for critical size bone defects is vascularized autographs.…”