Dissolving glass stimulates bone growth

Scientists from Imperial College London are developing a new form of glass, which can dissolve inside the body releasing calcium stimulating bone growth.

Microscopic image of bone cells grown on bioactive glass after two weeks of activity.Credit: Imperial College

The release of calcium and other elements such as silicon activate genes present in human bone cells which encode proteins to rapidly create bone nodules. The rest of the glass dissolves in the body without any causing any toxic effects.

Experiments at the ISIS neutron source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, funded by STFC, have revealed exactly how the calcium is contained in the glass and how it releases. Partners at the Universities of Kent and Warwick plan to investigate how to make their material more robust by continuing investigations on the ISIS Second Target Station when it opens later this year.
Professor Bob Newport from the University of Kent said: “The key outcome of our experiments has been a full understanding, at the level of atomic arrangements, of why it is that calcium is able so easily to leave the glass at the rate required to generate the desired response.”

They hope that if they improve the glass so that it can be load bearing then it could be used for joint replacements and aim to do clinical trials in the next five years.

Professor Newport said: “Although variants of these bioactive materials are already in clinical use, and the role of calcium these materials was already understood as being critical in terms of both the stability of the glass and its bioactivity, no direct ad quantitative study of the calcium atoms within the glass network had been undertaken.”

By Leila Sattary