Tailoring the Bioactivity of Natural Origin Inorganic – Polymeric Based Systems

This work describes our activities on two main areas: the design and production of several natural origin bioactive bone-analogues composites; - the development of several methodologies, most of them biomimetic, to produce calcium-phosphate coatings on the surface of distinct polymeric (in most cases biodegradable) matrices. The paper gives several examples on the development of different bioactive bone-analogue materials of several shapes, starting from distinct natural origin polymers and bioactive fillers. Their production, characterization of their bioactivity and main advantages are discussed in detail. Another main topic is the description of an all range of in-house developed methodologies to induce the formation of calcium phosphate layers on the surface of compact and porous biodegradable polymers. Several methodologies are presented and their versatility, advantages and drawbacks are discussed. Finally, the possibility of incorporating proteins and enzymes on calcium-phosphate biomimetic coating is discussed. A final section gives some examples of the biocompatibility evaluation of both bone-analogue and calcium-phosphate coatings. (Example substrate: starch/eva polymer blend with 10-40 wt.% Bioglass.)