Bioactive sol-gel foams for tissue repair

Bioactive glasses are known to have the ability to regenerate bone, but the ir use has been restricted mainly to powder, granules, or small monoliths. This work reports on the development of sol-gel foams with potential applic ations as bone graft implants or as templates for the in vitro synthesis of bone tissue for transplantation. These bioactive foams exhibit a hierarchi cal structure with interconnected macropores (10-500 mum) and a mesoporous framework typical of gel-glasses (pores of 2-50 nm). The macroporous matrix es were produced through a novel route that comprises foaming of sol-gel sy stems. Three glass systems were tested to verify the applicability of this manufacturing route, namely SiO2, SiO2-CaO, and SiO2-CaO-P2O5. This now cla ss of material combines large pores to support vascularization and 3-D tiss ue growth with the ability that bioactive materials have to provide bone-bo nding and controlled release of ionic biologic stimuli to promote bone cell proliferation by gene activation. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.