Following the success of silicate-based glasses as bioactive materials, silicates are believed to play important roles in promoting bone formation and have therefore been considered to provide a hydroxyapatite (HAP) surface layer capable of binding to bone as well as potentially being a pro-osteoinductive factor. Natural silicate minerals and silicate-substituted HAPs are also being actively investigated as orthopaedic bone and dental biomaterials for application in tissue engineering. However, the mechanisms for the proposed roles of silicate in these materials have not been fully understood and are controversial. Here, we review the potential roles of silicate for bone tissue engineering applications and recent breakthroughs in identifying the cellular-level molecular mechanisms for the osteoinductivity of silica. The goal of this article is to inspire new ideas for the rational design of third-generation cell-and gene-affecting biomaterials. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2090-2102, 2017.
Keywords: bioactive materials; mechanism; osteoblast; osteoclast; silicate (silica; silicon).
© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.