Hydroxyapatite Derived from Marine Resources and their Potential Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Utilization of bone graft substitutes have increased due to the rising number of accidents, trauma, and aging population. Autograft is still considered as a gold standard for treating bone defects. However, limitations such as insufficient donor sites and secondary surgery, leads to the development of alternative grafts. Hydroxyapatite (HA) from natural resources gained much attention in recent years as a bone graft substitute due to its biocompatibility, excellent osteointegration, osteoconductive, and osteoinductive properties. In the current review, we have presented the isolation procedures of HA from marine fishbone and cuttlefish bone. Further, composite preparation using marine derived HA with other polymeric and ceramic materials were discussed, and cell-materials interaction were reviewed in detail towards bone tissue construction. Composite biomaterials with HA showed better cell proliferation, cell adhesion, increased gene expression (collagen, osteocalcin, osteopontin, bone sialoprotein, BMP-2 etc.), and in vivo studies demonstrated significant bone formation with HA composite materials. Hence, composite biomaterials with hydroxyapatite will be potential candidates for artificial synthetic bone graft substitute.