Abstract
The formation of a bone-like apatite layer is essential for glasses and glass-ceramics to show osteoconductivity, i.e., a bone-bonding property, when they are implanted in bony defects. Glasses in the CaO-SiO2 binary system show promise in being able to deposit apatite after exposure to a body fluid, since these glasses can release Ca2+ ions to increase the degree of supersaturation of the surrounding body fluid with respect to apatite, as well as having the ability to form silanol groups that can induce heterogeneous nucleation of apatite on their surfaces. In this paper, we review different types of glass-ceramics that are mainly composed of CaO and SiO2 for their potential to form apatite in a simulated body fluid that has similar ion concentrations to those found in human blood plasma.
