（Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education of China, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China）
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DOI:
10.7502/j.issn.1674-3962.2013.10.03
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Abstract:
Bone loss due to osteoporosis, bone fracture, bone tumor and trauma affects hundreds of millions of people all over the world. Materials for the purpose of repairing bone defects have received extensive attention from many researchers at home and abroad in recent years. Nacre, which forms the inner layer of many mollusk shells, is also a composite of inorganic minerals and organic matrix similar to the structure of bone. Although nacre and bone are not homologous, parts of the complex machinery that directs their formation might be. Plenty of evidences of experiments about nacre both in vivo and in vitro in recent years are reviewed in this paper. The results present that nacre with its biocompatibility and osteogenic property might be a potential natural biomaterial for bone regeneration. The osteogenic property of nacre might probably be profited from some unknown signaling molecules within the organic matrix of nacre. Future perspectives and challenges for nacre to be applied as a natural biomaterial for bone regeneration are also proposed in this review.