Nanotechnological approach and bio-inspired materials to face degenerative diseases in ageing

The aging of the world population is increasingly claimed as an alarming situation, since an ever-raising number of personsin advanced age but still physically active is expected to suffer from invalidating and degenerative diseases. The impairmentof the endogenous healing potential provoked by the aging requires the development of more effective and personalizedtherapies, based on new biomaterials and devices able to direct the cell fate to stimulate and sustain the regrowth of damagedor diseased tissues. To obtain satisfactory results, also in cases where the cell senescence, typical of the elderly, makesthe regeneration process harder and longer, the new solutions have to possess excellent ability to mimic the physiologicalextracellular environment and thus exert biomimetic stimuli on stem cells. To this purpose, the "biomimetic concept" istoday recognized as elective to fabricate bioactive and bioresorbable devices such as hybrid osteochondral scaffolds andbioactive bone cements closely resembling the natural hard tissues and with enhanced regenerative ability. The review willillustrate some recent results related to these new biomimetic materials developed for application in different districts ofthe musculoskeletal system, namely bony, osteochondral and periodontal regions, and the spine. Further, it will be shownhow new bioactive and superparamagnetic calcium phosphate nanoparticles can give enhanced results in cardiac regenerationand cancer therapy. Since tissue regeneration will be a major demand in the incoming decades, the high potential ofbiomimetic materials and devices is promising to significantly increase the healing rate and improve the clinical outcomeseven in aged patients.