Bioactive glasses and glass-ceramics

The application of some special glass compositions to make implantable biomaterials has revolutionized the medical field and introduced the concept of “surface-active” or “bioactive” materials, which have the ability to elicit a specific biological response at the interface with the surrounding tissue. This property typically results in the formation of a tight bond between glass implant and living tissue and promotes the processes of tissue healing. Therefore, it is easy to understand how much such materials are appealing for biomedical purposes and why they have been so intensively investigated in the last decades. Controlled crystallization allows modulating the durability, bioactivity and mechanical properties of the glass-ceramics derived from the parent glasses. Furthermore, the easiness of doping glass compositions with specific therapeutic elements has recently led to the development of a range of melt-derived or sol-gel glasses that exhibit highly-attractive properties related to discouraging bacterial adhesion, sprouting angiogenesis (i.e. the ability to increase the formation of new blood vessels) and treating cancer.