Effect of strontium inclusion on the bioactivity of phosphate-based glasses

Review: understanding the properties of amorphous materials with high-performance computing methods

Amorphous materials have no long-range order in their atomic structure. This makes much of the formalism for the study of crystalline materials irrelevant, and so elucidating their structure and properties is challenging. The use of computational methods is a powerful complement to experimental studies, and in this paper we review the use of high-performance computing methods in the simulation of amorphous materials. Five case studies are presented to showcase the wide range of materials and computational methods available to practitioners in this field. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Supercomputing simulations of advanced materials'.

Evaluation of biocomposite putty with strontium and zinc co-doped 45S5 bioactive glass and sodium hyaluronate

The application of powder or granule formed bioactive glasses in the defect area with the help of a liquid carrier to fill the defects is a subject of interest and is still open to development. In this study, it was aimed to prepare biocomposites of bioactive glasses incorporating different co-dopants with a carrier biopolymer and to create a fluidic material (Sr and Zn co-doped 45S5 bioactive glasses‑sodium hyaluronate). All biocomposite samples were pseudoplastic fluid type, which may be suitable for defect filling and had excellent bioactivity behaviors confirmed by FTIR, SEM-EDS and XRD. Biocomposites with Sr and Zn co-doped bioactive glass had higher bioactivity considering the crystallinity of hydroxyapatite formations compared to biocomposite with undoped bioactive glasses. Biocomposites with high bioactive glass content had hydroxyapatite formations with higher crystallinity compared to biocomposites with low bioactive glass. Furthermore, all biocomposite samples showed non-cytotoxic effect on the L929 cells up to a certain concentration. However, biocomposites with undoped bioactive glass showed cytotoxic effects at lower concentrations compared to biocomposites with co-doped bioactive glass. Thus, biocomposite putties utilizing Sr and Zn co-doped bioactive glasses may be advantageous for orthopedic applications due to their specified rheological, bioactivity, and biocompatibility properties.

Developing Porous Ortho- and Pyrophosphate-Containing Glass Microspheres; Structural and Cytocompatibility Characterisation

Phosphate-based glasses (PBGs) are promising materials for bone repair and regeneration as they can be formulated to be compositionally similar to the inorganic components of bone. Alterations to the PBG formulation can be used to tailor their degradation rates and subsequent release of biotherapeutic ions to induce cellular responses, such as osteogenesis. In this work, novel invert-PBGs in the series xP2O5·(56 - x)CaO·24MgO·20Na2O (mol%), where x is 40, 35, 32.5 and 30 were formulated to contain pyro (Q1) and orthophosphate (Q0) species. These PBGs were processed into highly porous microspheres (PMS) via flame spheroidisation, with ~68% to 75% porosity levels. Compositional and structural analysis using EDX and 31P-MAS NMR revealed that significant depolymerisation occurred with reducing phosphate content which increased further when PBGs were processed into PMS. A decrease from 50% to 0% in Q2 species and an increase from 6% to 35% in Q0 species was observed for the PMS when the phosphate content decreased from 40 to 30 mol%. Ion release studies also revealed up to a four-fold decrease in cations and an eight-fold decrease in phosphate anions released with decreasing phosphate content. In vitro bioactivity studies revealed that the orthophosphate-rich PMS had favourable bioactivity responses after 28 days of immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF). Indirect and direct cell culture studies confirmed that the PMS were cytocompatible and supported cell growth and proliferation over 7 days of culture. The P30 PMS with ~65% pyro and ~35% ortho phosphate content revealed the most favourable properties and is suggested to be highly suitable for bone repair and regeneration, especially for orthobiologic applications owing to their highly porous morphology.

Structures and Dissolution Behaviors of Quaternary CaO-SrO-P2O5-TiO2 Glasses

Calcium phosphate glasses have a high potential for use as biomaterials because their composition is similar to that of the mineral phase of bone. Phosphate glasses can dissolve completely in aqueous solution and can contain various elements owing to their acidity. Thus, the glass can be a candidate for therapeutic ion carriers. Recently, we focused on the effect of strontium ions for bone formation, which exhibited dual effects of stimulating bone formation and inhibiting bone resorption. However, large amounts of strontium ions may induce a cytotoxic effect, and there is a need to control their releasing amount. This work reports fundamental data for designing quaternary CaO-SrO-P₂O₅-TiO₂ glasses with pyro- and meta-phosphate compositions to control strontium ion-releasing behavior. The glasses were prepared by substituting CaO by SrO using the melt-quenching method. The SrO/CaO mixed composition exhibited a mixed cation effect on the glassification degree and ion-releasing behavior, which showed non-linear properties with mixed cation compositions of the glasses. Sr²⁺ ions have smaller field strength than Ca²⁺ ions, and the glass network structure may be weakened by the substitution of CaO by SrO. However, glassification degree and chemical durability of pyro- and meta-phosphate glasses increased with substituted all CaO by SrO. This is because titanium groups in the glasses are closely related to their glass network structure by SrO substitution. The P-O-Ti bonds in pyrophosphate glass series and TiO₄ tetrahedra in metaphosphate glass series increased with substitution by SrO. The titanium groups in the glasses were crosslink and/or coordinate phosphate groups to improve glassification degree and chemical durability. Sr²⁺ ion releasing amount of pyrophosphate glasses with >83% SrO substitution was larger than 0.1 mM at day seven, an amount that reported enhanced bone formation by stimulation of osteogenic markers.

Multiple and Promising Applications of Strontium (Sr)-Containing Bioactive Glasses in Bone Tissue Engineering

Improving and accelerating bone repair still are partially unmet needs in bone regenerative therapies. In this regard, strontium (Sr)-containing bioactive glasses (BGs) are highly-promising materials to tackle this challenge. The positive impacts of Sr on the osteogenesis makes it routinely used in the form of strontium ranelate (SR) in the clinical setting, especially for patients suffering from osteoporosis. Therefore, a large number of silicate-, borate-, and phosphate-based BGs doped with Sr and produced in different shapes have been developed and characterized, in order to be used in the most advanced therapeutic strategies designed for the management of bone defects and injuries. Although the influence of Sr incorporation in the glass is debated regarding the obtained physicochemical and mechanical properties, the biological improvements have been found to be substantial both in vitro and in vivo. In the present study, we provide a comprehensive overview of Sr-containing glasses along with the current state of their clinical use. For this purpose, different types of Sr-doped BG systems are described, including composites, coatings and porous scaffolds, and their applications are discussed in the light of existing experimental data along with the significant challenges ahead.

Bioactivity evaluation of collagen-based scaffolds containing a series of Sr-doped melt-quench derived phosphate-based glasses

Phosphate-based glasses have been attracting attention due to their possible medical applications arising from unique dissolution characteristics in the human body leading to the possibility of new tissue regeneration. In this study, the leaching kinetics of a series of melt-quenched Sr-doped phosphate glasses are presented. Regardless of the presence of Sr, all the glasses have an initial linear and sustained release of the ions followed by a plateau. To guarantee proper nutritional support to the growing tissue during regeneration and to mimic the 3-dimensional architecture of tissues, organic scaffold systems have been developed. However, their poor mechanical strength has limited their application. To overcome this problem, cross-linkers can be used although this then limits the solubility of the materials. To succeed in dealing with such a limitation, in this paper, by freeze-drying, the aforementioned soluble melt-quenched phosphate glasses were combined as powders with collagen fibres from bovine achilles tendon to make degradable scaffolds. The scaffolds were characterized by SEM, EDX and BET. Changes to the dissolution behaviour of the glasses arising from the presence of collagen interacting with the ions leached were reported. Furthermore, the ability of the scaffolds to induce hydroxyapatite (HA) formation was evaluated: one the elaborated scaffold could grow an HA-like layer after a week in SBF. Based on the results obtained, a possible application in restorative dentistry is proposed for one or more materials.

A comparative study on the in vitro formation of hydroxyapatite, cytotoxicity and antibacterial activity of 58S bioactive glass substituted by Li and Sr

Lithium and strontium up to 10 mol% have been substituted for calcium in 58S bioactive glasses in order to enhance specific biological properties such as proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of cells as well as antibacterial activity. In-vitro formation of hydroxyapatite was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Substitution of either Li or Sr for Ca in the composition had a retarding effect on the bioactivity while Li decreased and Sr increased the rate of ion release in the simulated body fluid solution. The dissolution rate showed to be inversely proportional to oxygen density of the bioactive glasses. The proposed mechanisms for the lowered bioactivity are a lower supersaturation degree for nucleation of apatite in Li substituted bioactive glasses and blocking of the active growth sites of calcium phosphate by Sr²⁺ in Sr substituted bioactive glasses. The proliferation rate and alkaline phosphate activity of osteoblast cell line MC3T3-E1 treated with Li and Sr bioactive glasses were studied. 3-(4,5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and alkaline phosphate assay showed that all synthesized bioactive glasses with exception of 58S with 10 mol% SrO, exhibited statistically significant increase in both cell proliferation and alkaline phosphatase activity. Finally, 58S bioactive glass with 5 mol% Li₂O substitution for CaO was considered as a potential biomaterial in bone repair/regeneration therapies with enhanced biocompatibility, and alkaline phosphate activity, with a negligible loss in the bioactivity compared to the 58S bioglass. At the same time this composition had the highest antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria among all synthesized Li and Sr substituted bioactive glasses.

Structures and properties of phosphate-based bioactive glasses from computer simulation: a review

Computer simulations have enabled breakthroughs in understanding the connections between the atomic structure and properties of bioactive phosphate glasses.