Hierarchical Biomineralization: from Nature's Designs to Synthetic Materials for Regenerative Medicine and Dentistry

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Biomineralization is a highly dynamic, yet controlled, process that many living creatures employ to develop functional tissues such as tooth enamel, bone, and others. A major goal in materials science is to create bioinspired functional structures based on the precise organization of building blocks across multiple length scales. Therefore, learning how nature has evolved to use biomineralization could inspire new ways to design and develop synthetic hierarchical materials with enhanced functionality. Toward this goal, this review dissects the current understanding of structure–function relationships of dental enamel and bone using a materials science perspective and discusses a wide range of synthetic technologies that aim to recreate their hierarchical organization and functionality. Insights into how these strategies could be applied for regenerative medicine and dentistry are also provided.
Nature has evolved functional hierarchical hard tissues such as dental enamel and bone. Inspired by the process of biomineralization, this review dissects the current understanding of structure–function relationships of such mineralized tissues and describes innovative ways that are being developed to create bioinspired and hierarchical mineralized materials.