Biodegradable mesoporous bioactive glass nanospheres for drug delivery and bone tissue regeneration

Bioactive inorganic materials are attractive for hard tissue regeneration, and they are used as delivery vehicles for pharmaceutical molecules, scaffolds and components for bio-composites. We demonstrated mesoporous bioactive glass (BG) nanospheres that exhibited the capacity to deliver pharmaceutical molecules. Mesoporous BG nanospheres with variable Ca to Si ratios were synthesized using sol-gel chemistry. By controlling the hydrolysis and condensation conditions, the diameter of the mesoporous BG nanospheres was changed from 300 nm to 1500 nm. The porous structure and surface area of the BG nanospheres were shown to be dependent on their composition. The surface area of the BG nanospheres decreased from 400 ± 2 m(2) g(-1) to 56 ± 0.1 m(2) g(-1) when the Ca/Si ratio increased from 5 to 50 at.%. When the mesoporous BG nanospheres were loaded with ibuprofen (IBU), they exhibited a sustained release profile in simulated body fluid (SBF). In the meantime, the IBU-loaded BG nanospheres degraded in SBF, and induced apatite layer formation on the surface as a result of their good bioactivity. When the BG nanospheres were used as a composite filler to poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL), they were shown to be effective at improving the in vitro bioactivity of PCL microspheres.