Inorganic/organic combination: Inorganic particles/polymer composites for tissue engineering applications

Astha Sharma; Ganesh R Kokil; Yan He; Baboucarr Lowe; Arwa Salam; Tariq A Altalhi; Qingsong Ye; Tushar Kumeria

doi:10.1016/j.bioactmat.2023.01.003

Inorganic/organic combination: Inorganic particles/polymer composites for tissue engineering applications

Bioact Mater. 2023 Jan 11:24:535-550. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2023.01.003. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Astha Sharma^{1

2}, Ganesh R Kokil^{1

2

3}, Yan He⁴, Baboucarr Lowe^{1

2}, Arwa Salam⁵, Tariq A Altalhi⁵, Qingsong Ye⁶, Tushar Kumeria^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
² Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
³ School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, QLD, 4102, Australia.
⁴ Institute of Regenerative and Translational Medicine, Department of Stomatology, Tianyou Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
⁵ Chemistry Department, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Center of Regenerative Medicine, Department of Stomatology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430060, China.

Abstract

Biomaterials have ushered the field of tissue engineering and regeneration into a new era with the development of advanced composites. Among these, the composites of inorganic materials with organic polymers present unique structural and biochemical properties equivalent to naturally occurring hybrid systems such as bones, and thus are highly desired. The last decade has witnessed a steady increase in research on such systems with the focus being on mimicking the peculiar properties of inorganic/organic combination composites in nature. In this review, we discuss the recent progress on the use of inorganic particle/polymer composites for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. We have elaborated the advantages of inorganic particle/polymer composites over their organic particle-based composite counterparts. As the inorganic particles play a crucial role in defining the features and regenerative capacity of such composites, the review puts a special emphasis on the various types of inorganic particles used in inorganic particle/polymer composites. The inorganic particles that are covered in this review are categorised into two broad types (1) solid (e.g., calcium phosphate, hydroxyapatite, etc.) and (2) porous particles (e.g., mesoporous silica, porous silicon etc.), which are elaborated in detail with recent examples. The review also covers other new types of inorganic material (e.g., 2D inorganic materials, clays, etc.) based polymer composites for tissue engineering applications. Lastly, we provide our expert analysis and opinion of the field focusing on the limitations of the currently used inorganic/organic combination composites and the immense potential of new generation of composites that are in development.

Keywords: Composites; Inorganic nanomaterials; Mesoporous silica; Porous silicon; Regenerative medicine.