Biomimetic Synthesis of Nanostructured Calcium Phosphates

Book chapter, 2017

When illness or trauma results in bone non-union that surpasses the self-regenerative capacity of tissue, a substitute material is needed to fill the void and favorably induce bone regeneration. Synthetically produced biomaterials with better reproducibility and availability are clinically needed as an alternative to human- and animal-derived scaffolds. Such materials often comprise some form of calcium phosphate (CaP) owing to their resemblance to bone-minerals. Of special interest is the development of new formation strategies with the aim of forming materials that to a high extent mimics that of the bone tissue it restores. Such strategies often include some level of biomimetics where naturally occurring processes are used as inspiration. In this review, the current state-of-the-art in biomimetic formation techniques using molecular self-assembly and biomimetic mineralization with the effort of forming hierarchical CaP bone-like structures are summarized. It is focused on, but not limited to, the use of amphiphiles as structure-directing agents to achieve control over the CaP mineralization process, i.e. CaP morphogenesis, polymorphism as well as the orientation and organization of CaP crystallites in hybrids. In conclusion, some preclinical data are presented, which clearly demonstrate the positive outlook for bone-like synthetic biomaterials formed using molecular self-assembly techniques.