Multifunctional Black Bioactive Ceramic Material Developed Recently

Posted by Johnson Brown on December 24th, 2021

Bioceramic materials have a long history of being used to repair human hard tissues, from biologically inert materials (such as alumina and zirconia, etc.) to biological materials that are both biologically active and degradable (such as phosphate and silicate bioceramics, silicon Based bio-glass, etc.), its physiological function is no longer a simple tissue filling substitute, but a tissue engineering material that can induce tissue regeneration, regulate cell growth and functional differentiation. More and more evidences show that specific bioactive ceramic materials have the effect of promoting the specific cell regeneration activity of soft/hard tissues, and are widely used in the repair of tissue defects in bones, teeth and skin. However, there are many special tissue damages in clinical practice, such as tissue defects after surgical resection of bone tumors or skin cancer tissues. It is necessary to remove the remaining tumor cells before repairing the tissue defects to avoid tumor recurrence. In order to achieve the dual functions of tumor treatment and tissue regeneration, the previous research has prepared photothermal functionalized bioactive ceramic materials by compounding bioactive ceramics with photothermal reagents. Although this is an effective strategy, the long-term safety of photothermal nanoreagents in vivo remains to be investigated. Therefore, how to realize the integration of tissue regeneration and tumor treatment functions of the bioactive ceramic material itself without introducing foreign additives is particularly important.

Recently, the research team led by Wu Chengtie and Chang Jiang, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has made progress in the research of multifunctional black bioactive ceramic materials. The research team developed a new generation of \"black bioactive ceramics\" by thermally reducing traditional white bioactive ceramic materials (silicate and phosphate, etc.), expanding the application fields of traditional bioactive ceramic materials from tissue regeneration to the treatment of tumors and other diseases. Related research results were published on Advanced Materials.

The team used the magnesium thermal reduction method to thermally reduce the traditional white bioactive ceramic powder to prepare a series of black bioactive ceramic materials, including silicate (i.e. CaSiO₃, MgSiO₃) and phosphate (i.e. Ca₃(PO₄))₂. Ca₅(PO₄)₃(OH)) bioactive ceramics in two systems. Compared with traditional white bioceramics, there are a large number of oxygen vacancies and structural defects in the crystals of black bioceramics, and its degradation performance has been significantly improved. It is effective for the adhesion, spreading, proliferation, migration and differentiation of osteoblasts and skin cells. Cell biological activity has a better promotion effect. In animal experiments on the repair of chronic skin trauma and large bone defects, black bioceramics have a significantly better repair effect on skin and bone tissue than white ceramics, showing significant activity in promoting multifunctional regeneration of soft/hard tissues. In addition, under low-power near-infrared light irradiation, black bioactive ceramic materials show significant photothermal heating effect, which can lead to tumor cell death around the materials, successfully inhibit the growth of skin cancer and bone tumors in vivo experiments, and have excellent photothermal anti-tumor effect. In summary, black bioactive ceramic materials have multifunctional characteristics such as promoting the revitalization of a variety of tissues and cancer treatment, and this study expands the application range of bioactive ceramics from tissue regeneration to cancer treatment, strongly promoting the subject development and clinical application of bioceramics.