From replacement to regeneration: Are bio-nanomaterials the emerging prospect for therapy of defective joints and bones?

Healthcare is now regarded as one of the largest costs to any government budget and thus innovative ideas are sought as a means to reduce this spiralling bill. A significant proportion of this expenditure relates to specialised consultative care and post-operative therapy. In order to both mitigate the expense and improve the long-term effectiveness of orthopaedic surgery, including arthroplasty, the conception and creation of new biomaterials for treatment of defective joints and bones in the human body has become an emerging area of translational research over the last decade. In this review, we discuss a series of novel biomaterials and strategies for their therapeutic use that have arisen recently as viable approaches to regenerative medicine.