Editorial: Bioceramics and/or Bioactive Glass-Based Composites

This Special Issue is dedicated to bioactive materials such as bioceramics, bioactive glasses and composites based on such constituents. Bioactive materials are of fundamental importance: the demand for new materials suitable for healing of tissues and bone is dramatically increasing because of world population ageing. Many attempts have been performed to design and produce materials with several concurrent features, such as adequate mechanical properties for the specific application and good biocompatibility and biological response to favor the regeneration of damaged tissues. Among others, bioceramics and bioactive glass have proven to possess superior biological properties compared to other classes of materials. Hydroxyapatite and other calcium phophates have been widely used in the past years in both dentistry and orthopaedic surgery, mainly due to their good biocompatibility, osteoconduction and osseointegration. On the other hand, bioactive glasses have attracted a lot of interest, since they can bond with both hard and soft tissues and may have an antibacterial effect and stimulate new tissue formation. Despite such interesting properties, bioceramics and bioactive glasses have some drawbacks, in particular their inherent brittleness that limits their usage as structural materials. Moreover, bioactive glasses are prone to crystallize during thermal treatments, which are often required to fabricate specific systems such as porous scaffolds or coatings; crystallization is reported to reduce or slow down the bioactivity of the final product. Therefore, a smart approach is to produce composite materials, which can couple the favourable characteristics of bioceramics and bioactive glass with other materials that can for example satisfy the mechanical requirements or overcome problems related to fabrication. In fact, it is possible to tailor the properties of such composites by selectively varying the composition (i.e., the volume fractions of the two constituents) and thus produce devices with properties tailored for a specific clinical application. These hybrid composites (e.g., with a polymer phase) open new scenarios in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Composites based on bioactive glasses and bioceramics can be produced in various forms such as scaffolds, moldable implants, and surface coating, useful for many different applications. This article collection focuses on the recent progress in new bioactive glass or bioceramic based composites. This article collection also highlights future challenges for the production of innovative materials for regenerative medicine. We particularly welcomed contributions that included, but were not limited to, the following topics: • Bioactive glass and/or bioceramic composites design Edited and reviewed by: Hasan Uludag, University of Alberta, Canada