Innovative phosphate-based bioresorbable and antibacterial bioglasses

Infectious diseases are one of the most important causes of death in the World. The constant use of antibiotics has led to the development of new very resistant bacterial strains, which are a threat for public health. For this reason, noticeable efforts from different scientific fields have been devoted to achieve solutions that might contribute to attenuate this problem. In this context, research on new antibacterial materials has become a current and important goal in materials science. Several metals are well-known in literature for their antibacterial properties, both because of direct contact with the surface and the release of ions into the solution (indirect contact). Among these metals, the most extensively used in different applications are silver and copper. They show a broad spectrum of action against bacteria both upon exposure to surfaces and ions in solution. The advantage of copper resides in its lower toxicity to mammalian cells than silver. Indeed, Cu2+ ions in small quantity facilitate the activity of different enzymes and help cross-linking of collagen and elastin of bones, whereas in high concentration it can inhibit osteoblast proliferation. Therefore, it is crucial to control copper concentration for biomedical applications. The aim of this work is to evaluate the antibacterial effects and the biocompatibility of un-doped (CPG) and Cu2+-doped calcium-phosphate glasses (CPG_Cu) which have shown in previous studies interesting degradative, mechanical and optical properties to be used in biophotonic and medical applications.