Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Abstract

Novel Nanostructured Zn-substituted Monetite Based Biomaterial for Bone Regeneration

Sussette Padilla, Arcadio García de Castro, Ana Garzón-Gutiérrez, Lorena Benito, Silvia Enciso, Maria Canillas, Raú and G Carrodeguas

A bone regeneration biomaterial must be biocompatible, osteoconductive and osteoinductive, and be gradually replaced by newly formed bone in the shorter time possible. Nanostructured materials, emulating bone composition and morphology, have shown great potential in bone repair because of their higher reactivity, faster reabsorption and improved biological behavior over microstructured materials.

This work was aimed at developing a new biomaterial that meets the requirements for effective bone regeneration. Combination of elements with different solubility such as monetite, hydroxyapatite, amorphous calcium phosphate and silica gel, provided with the means to modulate the rate of material reabsorption of this novel biomaterial were Zn was found to be present as a partial substitution of Ca in the monetite lattice. The biomaterial was obtained by a hydraulic cementing reaction and was characterized by XRD, FTIR, NMR, chemical analysis, N2 adsorption porosimetry, Hg porosimetry, picnometry, SEM, TEM and evaluated in vitro and in vivo.

Biomaterial showed a nanometric structure with a very high specific surface area (≈80 m2/g), high surface roughness and high intragranular porosity (50%) ranging from macro to nanopores. All of these are key features for a bone regeneration material. Solubility studies demonstrate the different solubility of its components and the release of Ca, P, Si and Zn. In vivo evaluation showed the effectiveness of the material to regenerate and to maintain 89 ± 9% of the volume of a critical size bone defect in sheep at 16 weeks. In the restored volume residual biomaterial was found to occupy 9 ± 5% of the space while newly formed trabeculae occupied 32 ± 6% of the space. The newly formed bone showed abundant vascularization and osteogenic activity. Biomaterial was estimated to have resorbed by 86 ± 7% with a reduction of 67 ± 8% in diameter and clear signs of cell-mediated resorption.