Design of biocomposite materials for bone tissue regeneration.
Several synthetic scaffolds are being developed using polymers, ceramics and their composites to overcome the limitations of auto- and allografts. Polymer-ceramic composites appear to be the most promising bone graft substitute since the natural bone itself is a composite of collagen and hydroxyapatite. Ceramics provide strength and osteoconductivity to the scaffold while polymers impart flexibility and resorbability. Natural polymers have an edge over synthetic polymers because of their biocompatibility and biological recognition property. But, very few natural polymer-ceramic composites are available as commercial products, and those few are predominantly based on type I collagen. Disadvantages of using collagen include allergic reactions and pathogen transmission. The commercial products also lack sufficient mechanical properties. This review summarizes the recent developments of biocomposite materials as bone scaffolds to overcome these drawbacks. Their characteristics, in vitro and in vivo performance are discussed with emphasis on their mechanical properties and ways to improve their performance.
Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
Rubaiya
R
Yunus Basha
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
T S
TS
Sampath Kumar
Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India. Electronic address: mukeshd@iitm.ac.in.
Mukesh
M
Doble
D000818:Animals; D001861:Bone Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D018786:Bone Substitutes / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
D018786:Bone Substitutes
Biocomposites; Bone scaffolds; Ceramic micro/nanoparticles; Natural polymers; Tissue regeneration