No abstract

(AAM) is copyrighted and published by Elsevier. It is posted here by agreement between Elsevier and the University of Turin. Changes resulting from the publishing process-such as editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms-may not be reflected in this version of the text. The definitive version of the text was subsequently published in FREE RADICAL BIOLOGY & MEDICINE, 52, 2012, 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2011.11.033. You may download, copy and otherwise use the AAM for non-commercial purposes provided that your license is limited by the following restrictions: (1) You may use this AAM for non-commercial purposes only under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND license. (2) The integrity of the work and identification of the author, copyright owner, and publisher must be preserved in any copy.

Piezoelectric bone surgery appears to be more efficient in the first phases of bone healing; it induced an earlier increase in BMPs, controlled the inflammatory process better, and stimulated bone remodeling as early as 56 days post-treatment.

No abstract

A new bioactive glass composition (CEL2) in the SiO 2 -P 2 O 5 -CaO-MgO-K 2 O-Na 2 O system was tailored to control pH variations due to ion leaching phenomena when the glass is in contact with physiological fluids. CEL2 was prepared by a traditional meltingquenching process obtaining slices that were heat-treated to obtain a glass-ceramic material (CEL2GC) that was characterized thorough SEM analysis. Pre-treatment of CEL2GC with SBF was found to enhance its biocompatibility, as assessed by in vitro tests. CEL2 powder was then used to synthesize macroporous glass-ceramic scaffolds. To this end, CEL2 powders were mixed with polyethylene particles within the 300-600 lm size-range and then pressed to obtain crack-free compacted powders (green). This was heat-treated to remove the organic phase and to sinter the inorganic phase, leaving a porous structure. The biomaterial thus obtained was characterized by X-ray diffraction, SEM equipped with EDS, density measurement, image analysis, mechanical testing and in vitro evaluation, and found to be a glass-ceramic macroporous scaffold with uniformly distributed and highly interconnected porosity. The extent and size-range of the porosity can be tailored by varying the amount and size of the polyethylene particles.