Regenerating bone with bioactive glass scaffolds: A review of in vivo studies in bone defect models

Large bone defects resulting from fractures and disease are a medical concern, being often unable to heal spontaneously by the body’s repair mechanisms. Bone tissue engineering (BTE) is a promising approach for treating bone defects through providing a template to guide osseous regeneration. 3D scaffolds with microstructure mimicking host bone are necessary in common BTE strategies. Bioactive glasses (BGs) attract researchers’ attention as BTE scaffolds as they are osteoconductive and osteoinductive in certain formulations. In vivo animal models allow understanding and evaluation of materials’ performance in the complex physiological environment, being an inevitable step before clinical trials. The aim of this paper is to review for the first time published research investigating the in vivo osseous regenerative capacity of 3D BG scaffolds in bone defect animal models, to better understand and evaluate the progress and future outlook of the use of such scaffolds in BTE. The literature analysis reveals that the regenerative capacity of BG scaffolds depends on several factors; including BG composition, fabrication method, scaffold microstructure and pore characteristics, in addition to scaffold pretreatment and whether or not the scaffolds are loaded with growth factors. In addition, animal species selected, defect size and implantation time affect the scaffold in vivo behavior and outcomes. The review of the literature also makes clear the difficulty encountered to compare different types of bioactive glass scaffolds in their bone forming ability. Even considering such limitations of the current state-of-the-art, results generated from animal bone defect models provide an essential source of information to guide the design of BG scaffolds in future. Bioactive glasses are at the centre of increasing research efforts in bone tissue engineering as the number of research groups around the world carrying out research on this type of biomaterials continues to increase. However, there are no previous reviews in literature which specifically cover investigations of the performance of bioactive glass scaffolds in bone defect animal models. This is the topic of the present review, in which we have analysed comprehensively all available literature in the field. The review thus fills a gap in the biomaterials literature providing a broad platform of information for researchers interested in bioactive glasses in general and specifically in the outcomes of in vivo models. Bioactive glass scaffolds of different compositions tested in relevant bone defect models are covered.