Nanomaterials in bone tissue engineering

Every year, millions of individuals worldwide suffer from orthopedic ailments, necessitating the urgent development of biomimetic bone grafts. Research on bone substitute biomaterials is pivotal to improving therapeutic interventions for bone regeneration. Although the development of bone substitutes has made tremendous strides in recent decades, it must be accepted that an ideal biomaterial for bone regeneration is still intensely debated. Notwithstanding the advent of various biomaterials, nanomaterials have drawn much attention in recent years because of their potential application as a smart graft material to build a hierarchical bone structure. Nanomaterials have emerged as a fascinating material for augmenting bone recovery due to their unique physicochemical and biological properties, such as high reactivity, surface-to-volume ratio, multi-absorbing sites, biomineralization, and enhanced cell adhesion. The focus of this chapter is to present the different types of nanomaterial-based scaffolds and their combinations in bone tissue engineering applications.