Bioactive glasses in wound healing: hope or hype?

Bioactive glasses have long been investigated in mineralized tissue regeneration, but recently their potential applications in soft tissue repair, and in particular wound healing, have demonstrated great promise. Commonly used glasses, such as the silicate-based Bioglass® 45S5 [(46.1)SiO-(26.9)CaO-(24.4)NaO-(2.6)PO (mol%)] and borate-based 13-93B3 [(54)BO-(22)CaO-(6)NaO-(8)KO-(8)MgO-(2)PO (mol%)] have been implicated in the stages of wound healing due to their ability to release ions that can stimulate processes, such as haemostasis, antibacterial efficacy, epithelial cell migration, angiogenesis, and fibroblastic cell proliferation, amongst others. More recently, a wound dressing composed of a borate-based glass received regulatory approval for use in the treatment of acute and chronic wounds. However, to date, there are no comprehensive reports on their specific mechanism of action in accelerating the wound healing processes. In this highlight, we will provide a brief overview of the wound healing stages, review the bioactive glass formulations that have been investigated for potential applications in wound healing and attempt to summarize the consensus on why these glasses may be successful in wound healing.