Sol-gel glass and Bouncy Bioglass – the future of regenerative medicine
by
Julian R Jones
Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, UK
The first sol-gel derived bioactive glasses were produced more than 30 years ago, but even though they have important benefits over the traditional melt de-rived glasses, few have made it to clinical use. It is time to put that right.
The main benefits of sol-gel over melt-derived route for bioactive glasses are that they can: be made into porous scaffolds without sintering and devitrification, through foaming, 3D printing or electrospinning. They biodegrade faster and can be made into nanoparticles that can deliver ions inside cells. We have produced nanoparticles than can kill cancer cells but not the useful cells.
There is unmet clinical need for materials that can regenerate torn cartilage and also for scaffolds that can regeneration non-union bone defects. In both cases, mechanical properties are key. Sol-gel inorganic/organic hybrids can give control over mechanical properties due to their co-networks of inorganic and organic components.
Our new Bouncy Bioglass hybrid materials have unprecedented combination of mechanical properties and control of biodegradation, including high elasticity and self-healing ability. Hybrid inks were 3D printed in log-pile-like architectures and responded well to cyclic loads. We found they can guide bone marrow stem cells differentiated down a chondrogenic route and produce articular cartilage-like ma-trix, but only when the pore channel size was 250 mm. Sheep studies showed similar results, wherein scaffolds with 250 mm pores showed excellent cartilage regeneration after 3 months, while defects remained when scaffolds with 500 mm pores were used.
For bone regeneration, the challenge is introducing osteostimulation by incorporating calcium, while sharing load with host bone. Our traditional calcium salts, that we use in sol-gel, do not work well, so we had to move to use of calcium alkoxide precursors, but this actually increased printability and mechanical properties.
It is our pleasure to invite you to join the ISGS eSeminar for June 2023, which will be delivered by Professor Julian Jones on Thursday 15 June. Julian is a Professor in the Department of Materials, Faculty of Engineering at Imperial Col-lege London. His research interests include the development of robust, porous scaffolds for regenerative medicine, tough sol-gel hybrids, therapeutic nanoparticles and 3D printing, among others. His many awards include the 2022 Kroll Medal and the 2014 ICG Vittorio Gottardi Award. Please click here and here to learn more about his other achievements and interesting career journey, including his contributions to both the professional and social fabric of our sol-gel community.
Date: Thursday 15 June 2023
Format:
- ZOOM (eSeminar link), Meeting ID: 307 291 6432 Passcode: 7VW3nTUb9&
Time:
- 08:00 – Ottawa, USA, East Coast
- 09:00 – Brazil (São Paulo) and Argentina
- 12:00 – UTC
- 13:00 – UK, Portugal
- 14:00 – Central Europe, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland
- 15:00 – Romania, Israel, Eastern Europe, Ukraine
- 15:00 – Russia (Moscow, St Petersburg)
- 20:00 – China, Singapore, Malaysia
- 21:00 – Japan, Korea
- 22:00 – Australia (East Coast)
