As a new potential bone graft material, tissue engineered bone effectively compensates for the defects of today's bone repair materials. Meanwhile, mesoporous silica nanomaterials(MSNs) have been widely recognized due to their large specific surface area, good biocompatibility, and capability of further processing and modification. They have promising application prospects in bone tissue engineering. For the basic scientific research results that have been carried out in the early stage, the basic characteristics of mesoporous silica nano biomaterials and their application advantages, research status and development prospects in bone tissue engineering are reviewed. As for the research status, there are two aspects--as a carrier or as a component of engineering scaffolds. For the first aspect, different kinds of loaded drugs and different loading methods are reviewed. For the second, microstructure and mechanical properties of various complex scaffolds containing MSNs and the molecular and cellular behavior of seeded cells on these scaffolds are reviewed. The research of MSNs in bone cements and metal ions doped MSNs in bone tissue engineering are also included. The future development of MSNs in bone tissue engineering is also discussed.
Keywords: Bone repair; Bone tissue engineering; Mesoporous silica; Nanoparticles.