Biomimetics of Bone Implants: The Regenerative Road

Abstract

The current strategies for healing bone defects are numerous and varied. At the core of each bone healing therapy is a biomimetic mechanism, which works to enhance bone growth. These range from porous scaffolds, bone mineral usage, collagen, and glycosaminoglycan substitutes to transplanted cell populations. Bone defects face a range of difficulty in their healing, given the composite of dense outer compact bone and blood-rich inner trabecular bone. As such, the tissue possesses a number of inherent characteristics, which may be clinically harnessed as promoters of bone healing. These include mechanical characteristics, mineral composition, native collagen content, and cellular fraction of bone. This review charts multiple biomimetic strategies to help heal bony defects in large and small osseous injury sites, with a special focus on cell transplantation.

Keywords: biomimetic; bone graft; implant; osteoconduction; osteoinduction; stem cell.

FIG. 1.

Schematic showing composition of bone between compact (cortical) and spongy (cancellous). Cortical bone is evaluated further and broken into its constituents; 70% mineral, 22% organic protein, 8% water.