Bioactive Glass Derived Scaffolds as Carrier for Therapeutic Ions

Regarding the need for highly vascularised engineered bone constructs to regenerate bone defects, loading biomaterials with angiogenic therapeutics, like metallic ions, has emerged as promising approach to develop novel biomaterials for regenerative medicine. In this work, bioactive silicate glasses based on 45S5 and 1393 compositions containing the well-known angiogenic ions Cu and Co were fabricated and used for templating 3D scaffolds by foam replica technique. This book describes how bioactive glasses can be used as carrier for therapeutic metal ions with controlled release kinetics tuneable via the glass composition. The degradation and bioactivity studies revealed that incorporation of metallic ions does not impair the bioactivity and that traces of metallic ions are incorporated in the calcium phosphate layer formed on the scaffolds surface in contact with simulated body fluid. Cu and Co ions in therapeutic range were released and cell culture assays confirmed high compatibility of 45S5-Cu and 1393-Co derived particulate glasses and corresponding scaffolds with MG-63 osteoblast-like cells, human bone marrow derived stem cells (hBMSCs) as well as endothelial cells.