Recent Developments in Bioactive Ceramic/Glass: Preparation and Application in Tissue Engineering and Drug Delivery

Bioactive ceramic/glass (BCG) and its derivations have received extensive investigations and clinical applications in hard tissue substitution and regeneration. This review presents the patents on the state of art of the preparation of BCG and its application in tissue engineering and drug delivery. Most of the important patents and journal reports in last 10 years are covered in this paper. The discussions are concentrated on the preparation of various BCG materials with different architectures and functions. Special attention is paid to the recent developments in BCG cement, BCG coating, mesoporous BCG, nanoscale composite of BCG and biodegradable polymers, stimuli responsive BCG hydrogel, and homogeneously mineralized self-assembled peptide-amphiphile (PA) nanofiber-hydroxyapatite composite. Among others, development of highly ordered mesoporous BCG is highlighted as a breakthrough in the history of BCG due to its great potential in controlled delivery system for bioactive molecules in bone tissue regeneration. The nanocomposite of BCG and polymer is also considered as one of promising biomaterials due to its capability for using as the biomedical devices in load bearing bone tissue fixation and substitution. The valuable future investigations on BCG are also speculated in this review.