Nano-beta-tricalcium phosphates synthesis and biodegradation: 2. Biodegradation and apatite layer formation on nabo-β-TCP synthesized via microwave treatment

Hydroxyapatite from Fish for Bone Tissue Engineering: A Promising Approach

Natural or synthetic hydroxyapatite (HA) has been frequently used as implant materials for orthopaedic and dental applications, showing excellent bioactivity, adequate mechanical rigidity and structure, osteoconductivity and angiogenic properties, no toxicity, and absence of inflammatory or antigenic reactions. HA can be easily synthesized or extracted from natural sources, such as bovine bone. However, the manufacturing costs to obtain HA are high, restricting the therapy. Herein, much effort has been paid for obtaning alternative natural sources for HA. The potential of HA extracted from skeleton of animals has been investigated. The aim of this review is to exploit the potential of HA derived from fish to fulfill biological activities for bone tissue engineering. In particular, HA from fish is easy to be manufactured regarding the majority of protocols that are based on the calcination method. Furthermore, the composition and structure of HA from fish were evaluated; the biomaterial showed good biocompatibility as a result of non-cytotoxicity and handling properties, demonstrating advantages in comparison with synthetic ones. Interestingly, another huge benefit brought by HA from bone fish is its positive effect for environment since this technique considerably reduces waste. Certainly, the process of transforming fish into HA is an environmentally friendly process and stands as a good chance for reducing costs of treatment in bone repair or replacement with little impact into the environment.

Recombinant DNA technology and click chemistry: a powerful combination for generating a hybrid elastin-like-statherin hydrogel to control calcium phosphate mineralization

Understanding the mechanisms responsible for generating different phases and morphologies of calcium phosphate by elastin-like recombinamers is supreme for bioengineering of advanced multifunctional materials. The generation of such multifunctional hybrid materials depends on the properties of their counterparts and the way in which they are assembled. The success of this assembly depends on the different approaches used, such as recombinant DNA technology and click chemistry. In the present work, an elastin-like recombinamer bearing lysine amino acids distributed along the recombinamer chain has been cross-linked via Huisgen [2 + 3] cycloaddition. The recombinamer contains the SNA15 peptide domains inspired by salivary statherin, a peptide epitope known to specifically bind to and nucleate calcium phosphate. The benefit of using click chemistry is that the hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamers cross-link without losing their fibrillar structure. Mineralization of the resulting hybrid elastin-like-statherin recombinamer hydrogels with calcium phosphate is described. Thus, two different hydroxyapatite morphologies (cauliflower- and plate-like) have been formed. Overall, this study shows that crosslinking elastin-like recombinamers leads to interesting matrix materials for the generation of calcium phosphate composites with potential applications as biomaterials.