Effect of strontium doping on bone nodule formation of sol-gel derived bioglass

Bioactive glass (BG) has a broad variety of biomedical applications because of its distinctive ability to bond with bone by exchanging ions in simulated body fluid when implanted inside the body, it has drawn enormous interest. Osteoporosis is a main cause of loss of bone density and that adding strontium (Sr) to the matrix of bioglass stimulates bone formation and also increases bone density and mass. This study concerns sol-gel derived Sr doped bioactive glass (BG) (50.77SiO2−24.12Na2O–(23.39-x)CaO–xSrO–1.72P2O5) in the quaternary (SiO2−Na2O-CaO-P2O5) system (x=0, 3, 5 and 8 mol%).The effect of Sr on bone nodule-like formation was conducted by using Calcified Nodule Staining Kit (Cosmo Bio Co., Ltd) after 28 days culture with MC3T3-E1 osteoblast-like cells (Riken Cell Bank, Tokyo, Japan). In XRD, the amorphous peak is slightly shifted to lower 2θ° value after SrO was incorporated into BG. Mineralization staining revealed that the larger area of mineralized nodules was detected on Sr (3) BG than others. These results suggest that BG with SrO 3% is a good candidate for bone tissue engineering with fast bone formation.