Biomineralization Forming Process and Bio-inspired Nanomaterials for Biomedical Application: A Review

Abstract

Biomineralization is a process in which organic matter and inorganic matter combine with each other under the regulation of living organisms. Because of the biomineralization-induced super survivability and retentivity, biomineralization has attracted special attention from biologists, archaeologists, chemists, and materials scientists for its tracer and transformation effect in rock evolution study and nanomaterials synthesis. However, controlling the biomineralization process in vitro as precisely as intricate biology systems still remains a challenge. In this review, the regulating roles of temperature, pH, and organics in biominerals forming process were reviewed. The artificially introducing and utilization of biomineralization, the bio-inspired synthesis of nanomaterials, in biomedical fields was further discussed, mainly in five potential fields: drug and cell-therapy engineering, cancer/tumor target engineering, bone tissue engineering, and other advanced biomedical engineering. This review might help other interdisciplinary researchers to bionic-manufacture biominerals in molecular-level for developing more applications of biomineralization.

Recent Advances in Silk Sericin/Calcium Phosphate Biomaterials

“…The understanding of the biomineralization process can lead to numerous applications in biomedical engineering, namely for the development of advanced bone substitutes (Chen et al, 2019;Veiga et al, 2019). Even though pure sericin has poor mechanical properties, which hinders its utilization in bone tissue engineering (bone-TE), its biological properties can promote bone formation and induce the nucleation of bone-like HAp.…”

Functional derivatives of human dentin matrix protein 1 modulate morphology of calcium carbonate crystals

“…The formation of biominerals such as bones, teeth, otoliths, and otoconia is a matrix‐mediated process . Biomineralization is an ancient and very complex process involving a large number of macromolecules, which is intensively studied today. However, there is still lack of knowledge concerning the detailed mechanisms and their role in the crystal growth.…”

In Vivo Biosynthesis of Inorganic Nanomaterials Using Eukaryotes—A Review

“…The synthesis of minerals by living organisms is widespread in nature with more than 60 minerals having been identified [ 15 , 16 ] and has become a great source of inspiration for materials scientists seeking to create novel functional materials [ 17 , 18 ]. This phenomenon, better known as biomineralization, has numerous examples including the production of bones and teeth by vertebrates, shells by mollusks, silica by diatoms, and magnetite crystals by salmon, birds and bees [ 16 , 19 ].…”