Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Biomimetic Mineralization of
Hydrogel Biomaterials for Bone
Tissue Engineering
Timothy E.L. Douglas
1,
*, Elzbieta Pamula
2
and Sander C.G. Leeuwenburgh
3
1
Polymer Chemistry and Biomaterials (PBM) Group, Department of
Organic Chemistry, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
2
Department of Biomaterials, Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics,
AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland
3
Department of Biomaterials, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
Hydrogels, or three-dimensional polymer networks with entrapped water, are
gaining interest as tissue engineering scaffolds due to advantages including inject-
ability, exact fi tting to the defect site and ease of incorporation of bioactive sub-
stances and cells. For bone regeneration, however, hydrogels lack the capacity to
calcify which limits their suitability for hard tissue regeneration.
This chapter will review biomimetic approaches to mineralize synthetic and nat-
ural hydrogels for bone regeneration. Particular attention will be devoted to gen-
eration of extra nucleation sites by addition of ceramic nanoparticles, biomimetic
mineralization in calcium- and/or phosphate-containing solutions, functionaliza-
tion with calcium- and phosphate-binding species in the form of biomolecules and
functional groups as well as enzymatically induced mineralization.
Keywords:
Hydrogel mineralization, bone tissue engineering, alkaline phospha-
tase, calcium phosphate, nanoparticles, nanocomposite
3.1 Introduction
Hydrogels have been increasingly considered as candidate materials for
tissue regeneration since these materials resemble the hydrated nature
of the extracellular matrix. From a practical point of view, hydrogels can
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