Nanoparticle technology in bone tissue engineering

Nanotechnology has been increasingly utilized to enhance bone tissue engineering strategies. In particular, nanotechnology has been employed to overcome some of the current limitations associated with bone regeneration methods including insufficient mechanical strength of scaffold materials, ineffective cell growth and osteogenic differentiation at the defect site, as well as unstable and insufficient production of growth factors to stimulate bone cell growth. Among the tremendous technologies of nanoparticles in biological systems, we focus here on the three major nanoparticle research areas that have been developed to overcome these limitations and disadvantages: (a) the generation of nanoparticle-composite scaffolds to provide increased mechanical strength for bone graft, (b) the fabrication of nanofibrous scaffolds to support cell growth and differentiation through morphologically-favored architectures, and (c) the development of novel delivery and targeting systems of genetic material, especially those encoding osteogenic growth factors. These nanoparticle-based bone tissue engineering technologies possess a great potential to ensure the efficacy of clinical bone regeneration.