Sol–gel derived nanoscale bioactive glass (NBG) particles reinforced poly(ε-caprolactone) composites for bone tissue engineering

Poly(ε-caprolactone)-based membranes with tunable physicochemical, bioactive and osteoinductive properties

“…On the other hand, the water droplet can be spread easier on the more porous surface of membrane, which results in higher hydrophilicity [41]. It was previously shown that bioactive glass particles, as a hydrophilic material, remarkably improve the hydrophilicity of PCL matrix [9,18]. Nevertheless, a more pronounced effect was observed for composites containing smaller bioactive glass particles due to their homogenous distribution in the PCL matrix and thus uniform exposition on the surfaces [42,43].…”

“…Porous biomaterials for TE have to meet several requirements: (1) uniformly distributed and interconnected highly porous structure with suitable pore size and shape to provide adequate space for cells seeding or growth, blood vessel ingrowth and flow transport of nutrients and metabolic waste; (2) biodegradable or bioresorbable with a controllable degradation and resorption rate, appropriate to match tissue growth in vivo and with non-cytotoxic degradation products; (3) suitable surface topography, chemistry and wettability for cell attachment, proliferation and differentiation; (4) mechanical properties matching those of the tissues at the site of implantation [2,6,7]. Furthermore, materials for bone tissue engineering (BTE) should possess bone-bonding ability, as well as osteoconductive/osteoinductive properties [8,9].…”

“…bioactive glasses, glass-ceramics, silica, wollastonite, calcium phosphates) in biodegradable polymer matrix is another strategy for modulating a number of properties of porous materials for TE [3,8]. Such approach is particularly suitable for BTE applications because of the polymer/ceramic composites ability to mimic the structure of natural bone [9].…”

“…Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)-based composites reinforced with bioactive glass particles have been drawing increasing interest as materials for BTE applications [9,18]. Such composites combine excellent biocompatibility, relatively high mechanical strength, ease of processing, as well as low degradation rate of PCL [9,[18][19][20] with excellent bone-bonding ability, osteoconductive and/or osteoinductive character, stiffness and high hydrophilicity of bioactive glasses [8,9,18,21,22].…”

“…Such composites combine excellent biocompatibility, relatively high mechanical strength, ease of processing, as well as low degradation rate of PCL [9,[18][19][20] with excellent bone-bonding ability, osteoconductive and/or osteoinductive character, stiffness and high hydrophilicity of bioactive glasses [8,9,18,21,22]. Furthermore, there is a possibility to use sol-gel-derived glass particles that have a larger surface area and -OH groups present in their structure, and therefore usually exhibit higher bioactivity than conventional melt-derived glasses [23,24].…”