Ceramic bioactivity and related biomimetic strategy

Bioactivity a property displayed by ceramics such as Bioglass(R), hydroxyapatite and glass-ceramic A-W is a surface property, which provides a chemical integration of synthetic materials with living tissue. A core mechanism of bioactivity is the biomineralization of calcium phosphate nano-crystals on ceramics with specific compositions and structures, inspiring acellular and protein-free biomimetic strategies for bio-interactive materials with new physical, chemical and biological functions, e.g., bioactive surface functionalizations on tough metallic and ceramic materials, sot-gel derivation of bioactive ceramic-polymer nano-hybrids and textured biomimetic depositions of nano-calcium phosphate on polymer templates. This paper reviews these forms of bioactivity both in vivo and in vitro and considers perspectives in tissue engineering. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.