Designing biomaterials based on biomineralization of bone

In nature, organisms control crystal nucleation and growth using organic interfaces as templates. Scientists, in the last decades, have tried to learn from nature how to design biomimetic biomaterials inspired by the hierarchical complex structure of bone and other natural mineralised tissues or to control the biomineralization process onto biomaterials substrates to promote the osteoconductive properties of implantable devices. The design of synthetic bone analogues, i.e., with a structure and properties similar to bone, would certainly constitute a major breakthrough in bone tissue engineering. Moreover, many strategies have been proposed in the literature to develop bioactive bone-like materials, for instance using bioactive glasses. Fundamental aspects of biomineralization may be also important in order to propose new methodologies to improve calcification onto the surface of biomaterials or to develop bioactive tridimensional templates that could be used in regenerative medicine. In particular, it has been shown that some chemical groups and proteins, as well as the tridimensional matrix in which calcification would occur, play a fundamental role on the nucleation and growth of hydroxyapatite. All these distinct aspects will be reviewed and discussed in this paper.