Application of Bone Substitutes and Its Future Prospective in Regenerative Medicine

Bone is a hard and dense connective tissue that supports and maintains the body structure and functions. Several factors like aging, drugs, hormonal changes, and physical activities lead to several kinds of bone injuries/fracture. To address these problems, autologous bone graft is considered an ideal material. However, limited availability and complications related to its harvesting process like donor site morbidity and pain limit the use of autologous bone graft in bone regeneration. With increasing advances in technology, several bone substitute materials such as synthetics, bioceramics, and polymers are emerging as a substitute of auto- or allog-enous bone for the treatment of bone defect. These bone substitute materials should be biocompatible, bioresorbable, osteoconductive, osteoinductive, and support the ingrowth of new bone. In this chapter, we summarize the currently available bone graft and bone substitute materials including biological and bio-inorganic factors. An overview of the associated advantages, challenges, and future perspectives to clinical implication is also discussed.