Foreword

The use of bioceramics for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine extends over two centuries. Dorozhkin provided a detailed review of the history of bioceramics [1]. He noted that Johan Gottlieb Gahn and Carl Wilhelm Scheele first described the presence of calcium and phosphorus in bone in the second half of the eighteenth century [1, 2]. The first use of bioceramics in medicine occurred in the late nineteenth century when Junius E. Cravens distributed a calcium orthophosphate powder called “Lacto-Phosphate of Lime” for capping the dental pulp during dental restorations [1, 3, 4]. Larry Hench's discovery in 1969 that a sodium-calcium-phosphorous-–silicate glass possesses bone bonding functionality gave rise to the clinical use of “bioactive glass” materials for bone repair [5, 6]. The term “bioceramics” was first used shortly thereafter in 1971 [7]. The bioceramics field is now truly global in nature and includes research, pre-clinical, and clinical activities involving various types of bioactive and bioinert inorganic materials.

This is the second part of a couple of books edited by Saeid Kargozar, a senior assistant professor in the Tissue Engineering Research Group of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, and Francesco Baino, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Science and Technology at the Politecnico di Torino. This second volume provides a comprehensive overview of the use of bioceramics for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with focus on applications. In Chapter 1, Girija et al. consider the use of hydroxyapatite derived from biogenic sources for biomedical and environmental applications. Rodríguez-González et al. describe the use of three-dimensionally printed bioceramics scaffolds for tissue reconstruction in Chapter 2. Chapter 3, by Kargozar et al., reviews the additive manufacturing of bioactive glasses. In Chapter 4, Kargozar et al. consider the use of additive manufacturing to process bioactive glasses for bone tissue engineering. Crovace and Souza describe the use of bioactive glass and glass ceramics for treating microbial infections in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, Kargozar et al. review the use of bioactive ceramics and glasses with improved angiogenesis functionality. Pourshahrestani et al. consider the potent hemostatic activity of bioactive glass and its composites in Chapter 7. Zheng and Xu describe the use of a combination of bioactive glass nanoparticles and natural polymer-based hydrogels for bone tissue regeneration in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9, Borges et al. consider the use of bioceramics and bioactive glasses for dental regeneration and repair. Chapter 10, by Bhattacharya et al., reviews the use of bioceramics and bioactive glasses for skin wound healing applications.

In this volume, Professors Kargozar and Baino as well as the chapter contributors have provided the bioceramics community with a comprehensive consideration of the bioceramics field. I anticipate that their volume will be beneficial to students as well as researchers in academia, government, and industry as they continue efforts to improve our understanding of the use of bioceramic materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.