Review of bioactive glass in synthetic bone grafts and bone regeneration of natural bone

Bioactive glasses have been reported to be able to stimulate more bone regeneration compared to other bioactive ceramics but they lag behind other bioactive ceramics in terms of commercial success. The full potential of bioactive glasses is yet to be explored, with research activity in this respect being on the rise. The purpose of this paper was to review the applications of bioactive glasses in synthetic bone grafts and natural bone regeneration.Search strategy: This paper reviewed the current products and the recent developments in an attempt to evaluate the current state of this new industry. All the relevant articles published in Pubmed, Google Scholar and Science Direct from 1971 to 2013 with the key words Bioglass, Scaffold, Graft and bone were searched. After studying 120 article abstracts, some of the papers were reviewed completely and 76 articles covering the most important clinical and biological aspects of synthetic bone grafts and natural bone regeneration were selected. The 45S5 Bioglass was the first artificial material that was found to form a chemical bond with bone, launching the field of bioactive ceramics. In vitro studies showed that bioactive glasses bond with bone more rapidly than other bioceramics, and their osteogenic properties were attributed to their dissolution products stimulating osteoprogenitor cells at the genetic level. However, calcium phosphate products such as tricalcium phosphate and synthetic hydroxyapatite are more widely used in the clinic. This review focused on the effects of various products on synthetic bone grafts. Since bioceramics are fragile they cannot be applied to bone defects that are subjected to cyclic loads, as they are brittle. To overcome this problem, bioactive glass polymer hybrids are being synthesized that are resistant and durable, with identical coefficients of bioactive minerals and polymers in their chemical structure.