In vitro mineralization of functional polymers

•Comprehensive review of polymer-based materials with anionic functional groups which have been evaluated using the simulated body fluid test.

This review covers studies in which simulated body fluid (SBF) has been used either to evaluate in vitro the bone bonding ability of a material or to produce a biomimetic coat on a material surface. The review focuses on materials with grafted functional polymer chains and functional polymer substrates. It is restricted to the phosphate, phosphonate, carboxylate and sulfonate functional groups as these mimic the anionic groups which are found on biological molecules implicated in mammalian bone mineralization. In this regard, the review covers articles from 1990 to mid-2015.