Bone is the most studied tissue in the field of tissue regeneration, and although it has an intrinsic capacity to regenerate after an injury, several pathologies and lesions can make it difficult to form and reabsorb bone. Therefore, bone tissue engineering tries to mimic the extracellular matrix of tissue and the different biochemical pathways that lead to successful regeneration. So far, the most widely used method has been through the use of natural grafts, although their limited availability and potential disease transmission have limited their applications. With this in mind, there is a great need to develop new synthetic grafts that can provide functions similar to those of natural grafts, while avoiding potential related problems. In that sense, the use of therapeutic ions released by biomaterials is an attractive option because they have greater stability and, in terms of safety, are less risky than biomolecules.

From this starting point, “we carried out a review describing the wider possibilities of incorporating ions within biomaterials, covering the different possible methodologies to incorporate ions into ceramic, metallic and polymeric materials and the impact that the different methodologies will have on their end release”, explained Román Pérez, principal investigator for the project and director of the Bioengineering Institute of Technology.

Throughout this bibliographic review, “we have shown that different ions have different effects on osteogenic actions. In addition, the recent development of biomaterials that incorporate and release different ions has shown great potential to trigger the regeneration of bone tissue. Its inorganic nature allows for a more stable and prolonged effect compared to other biological molecules. However, further studies should be carried out on how to control the release of ions on demand, as well as how to obtain systems of sustained release,” said Èlia Bosch and Leire Díez, lead authors of the study and BIT researchers.

The paper, entitled “Biological Roles and Delivery Strategies for Ions to Promote Osteogenic Induction”, was recently published in the Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology journal, and was carried out in cooperation with researchers from the Center for Biomedical Technologies and the Materials Engineering and Interface Science Group at the Queensland University of Technology (Australia).