Impact of nanophase hydroxyapatite-based biomaterials on tissue engineering

Abstract

Biomaterials are being used over the last few decades as temporary scaffold or permanent implant in tissue engineering, but often encountered with insufficient tissue formation and related functions mainly due to the poor surface interaction of implanted material with host tissues, resulting in failure of the biomaterials. In addition, most of them greatly varied from the tissue to be repaired either chemically or structurally. In this concern, it is essential to design biomaterials with superior surface properties to facilitate favorable host tissue interactions for their long-term survivability and to enhance tissue integeration and regeneration, which typically leads to the concept of nanophase biomaterials. Scaffold plays a critical role in engineering tissues and organs. In designing scaffolds for tissue engineering, in particular engineering bone tissues, researchers have sought not only to create surface active materials but also to mimic composition and structural aspects of bone to promote cell adhesion, cell-matrix interactions, osteointegration, tissue formation, and continued function. Nanophase hydroxyapatite (HA) is a class of ceramic biomaterial that mimics the bone mineral in composition and structure to certain extend and possess unique capabilities for surface interactions with biological entities than conventional HA. It is therefore being considered as a scaffolding system or implant in engineering bone tissues. Keeping these points in view, this article reports the impact of nanophase HA-based biomaterials on bone tissue engineering. © 2018 American Scientific Publishers.