Synthesis, Characterization and In Vitro Biological Evaluation of Sol-gel Derived Sr-containing Nano Bioactive Glass

In this study, bioactive glass of the type SiO2-CaO-SrO-P2O5 was obtained by the sol-gel processing method and the effects of SrO/CaO substitution on the in vitro biological properties of the synthesized glasses were evaluated. The obtained bioactive glasses were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differentioal scanning caloremetry (DSC) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) analyses. The effects of various glass compositions on proliferation and differentiation of osteoblastic cells were also evaluated. The results showed that incorporation of Sr in the obtained glass network did not result in any structural alteration due to the similar role of SrO compared with that of CaO. In vitro experiments with human osteosarcoma cell lines (MG-63) indicated that bioactive glass incorporating 5 mol % in the composition revealed optimal cell proliferation and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. Our results ascertained this material to be non-toxic and compatible for the proposed work in segmental defects in the rabbit model in vivo.