BACKGROUND:Bioceramic has similar components compared to human bone tissue and it has shown good ostoconductivity both in vitro and in vivo.Meanwhile,it is biocompatible.So,bioceramics is considered as one of the most promising materials which can be applied to bone tissue engineering.OBJECTIVE:To summarize the properties of bioceramics and the research progress in experimental studies and clinical applications.METHODS:PubMed was searched for relevant articles published during 2000 to 2016 with the key words of bioceramics,hydroxylapatite,calcium phosphate,bioglass,bone tissue engineering in English.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Bioceramic materials can be divided into two categories:calcium phosphates and bioactive glass.Calcium phosphates have good biocompatibility and osteoconductivity,while the mechanical property is not so satisfying.Bioactive glass is biocompatible and beneficial to the expression of some osteogenic genes,but it is brittle and weak.Some kinds of bioceramics have already been applied to clinical practice.In recent years,calcium phosphates have also been used as coated materials to improve the properties of tissue-engineered scaffolds.Bioceramics combined with synthetic polymers,shows better mechanical performance and biodegradation.Even so,it still has plenty of problems and challenges as a widely used bone repair material in clinical practice.