Applications of Carbon Nanotubes in Bone Regenerative Medicine
Manabu Tanaka, Kaoru Aoki, Hisao Haniu, Takayuki Kamanaka, Takashi Takizawa, Atsushi Sobajima, Kazushige Yoshida, Masanori Okamoto, Hiroyuki Kato, Naoto Saito
Abstract
Scaffolds are essential for bone regeneration due to their ability to maintain a sustained release of growth factors and to provide a place where cells that form new bone can enter and proliferate. In recent years, scaffolds made of various materials have been developed and evaluated. Functionally effective scaffolds require excellent cell affinity, chemical properties, mechanical properties, and safety. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are fibrous nanoparticles with a nano-size diameter and have excellent strength and chemical stability. In the industrial field, they are used as fillers to improve the performance of materials. Because of their excellent physicochemical properties, CNTs are studied for their promising clinical applications as biomaterials. In this review article, we focused on the results of our research on CNT scaffolds for bone regeneration, introduced the promising properties of scaffolds for bone regeneration, and described the potential of CNT scaffolds.