Bioglass (BG) microspheres with a constitution of CaO–SiO₂–P₂O₅ demonstrate promising applications in bone repair. It has been proved that the cerium ion incorporation in bioglass structure can provide materials with additional antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and angiogenesis functions. In this study, cerium-incorporated bioglass (Ce–BG) microspheres were prepared via a spray drying process. The effects of Ce content on the phase composition, degradation performance and in vitro bioactivity of Ce–BG microspheres were investigated. The results show that all microspheres are uniform in element distribution with relatively smooth surfaces and a high degree of sphericity. The Ce incorporation introduces a small amount of CePO₄ and CeO₂ crystalline phases. Along with the increase of Ce content, the degradation rate of Ce–BG microspheres slows down, and the effect of degradation products on the increase of environmental pH value is alleviated, and the pH value was found to be the lowest after 7 d of immersion for Ce–BG microspheres with mole ratio of Ce and Ce+Ca of 0.03:1.00 in Tris-HCl buffer. Ce–BG microspheres with different Ce content have good ability to induce apatite deposition in vitro.

Bone engineering scaffolds with antibacterial activity satisfy the repair of bacterial infected bone defects, which is an expected issue in clinical. In this work, 3D-printed polymer-derived forsterite scaffolds were proposed to be deposited with hydroxyapatite (HA) coating via a hydrothermal treatment, achieving the functions of photothermal-induced antibacterial ability and bioactivity. The results showed that polymer-derived forsterite scaffolds possessed the photothermal antibacterial ability to inhibit Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) in vitro, owing to the photothermal effect of free carbon embedded in the scaffolds. The morphology of HA coating on forsterite scaffolds could be controlled through changing the hydrothermal temperature and the pH value of the reaction solution during hydrothermal treatment. Furthermore, HA coating did not influence the mechanical strength and photothermal effect of the scaffolds, but facilitated the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rat bone mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs) on scaffolds. Hence, the HA-deposited forsterite scaffolds would be greatly promising for repairing bacterial infected bone defects.

Polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) strategy shows a great deal of advantages for the fabrication of advanced ceramics. Organosilicon polymers facilitate the shaping process and different silicon-based ceramics with controllable components can be fabricated by modifying organosilicon polymers or adding fillers. It is worth noting that silicate ceramics can also be fabricated from organosilicon polymers by the introduction of active fillers, which could react with the produced silica during pyrolysis. The organosilicon polymer-derived ceramics show many unique properties, which have attracted many attentions in various fields. This review summarizes the typical organosilicon polymers and the processing of organosilicon polymers to fabricate silicon-based ceramics, especially highlights the three-dimensional (3D) printing technique for shaping the organosilicon polymer-derived ceramics, which makes the possibility to fabricate silicon-based ceramics with complex structure. More importantly, the recent studies on fabricating typical non-oxide and silicate ceramics derived from organosilicon polymers and their biomedical applications are highlighted.