Bone repair and regeneration:: possibilities

The most significant demand for biomaterials has emerged as a consequence of the need to provide clinical treatment to a large number of patients. The key factors and driving forces are the increase in life expectancy and the aim to provide a minimum quality of life to an aging population. In particular, said increase in life expectancy has increased considerably the number of patients with osteoporosis. If we take also into account the continuous increase in the number of motor vehicles, with its associated social penalty in terms of traffic accidents, the incidence of bone pathologies is increasing at an alarming rate in recent years. The search for potential solutions in this field produces a large demand for materials suitable for bone repair or replacement. Calcium phosphates, bioglasses, bio-glass ceramics and ordered silica mesoporous materials, among other types of materials, will be reviewed and studied from the point of view of their potential applications as replacement materials in bone repair and regeneration, as potential substrates in tissue engineering, and also as drug delivery systems. The ability of functionalising the material surfaces with various molecules of different nature and shape will allow to actuate selectively on the biological environment. An overview on the present achievements, but also on the 'missing links' will be presented.