Biocompatibility tissue engineering scaffolds

Keywords Biocompatible polymer Delivery or release control Electrospirming Enzyme immobilization Tissue engineering scaffold Wound dressing... 

Abstract Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is a plastic-like material synthesized by many bacteria. PHA serves as an energy and carbon storage componnd for the bacteria. PHA can be extracted and purified from the bacterial cells and the resulting product resembles some commodity plastics such as polypropylene. Because PHA is a microbial product, there are natural enzymes that can degrade and decompose PHA. Therefore, PHA is an attractive material that can be developed as a bio-based and biodegradable plastic. In addition, PHA is also known to be biocompatible and can be used in medical devices and also as bioresorbable tissue engineering scaffolds. In this chapter, a brief introduction about PHA and the fermentation feedstock for its production are given. 

Electrospinning of PHA is still relatively new in scaffold fabrication. To date, P(3HB) and P(3HB-co-3HV) are the most common microbial polyesters to be electrospun into tissue-engineering scaffolds. Suwantong et al. (2007) prepared ultrafine electrospun fiber mats of P(3HB) and P(3HB-co-3HV) as scaffolding materials for skin and nerve generation, hi their study, they evaluated the in vitro biocompatibility of these fibers using mouse fibroblasts and Schwann cells... 

The success of a tissue engineering scaffold or a drug carrier depends mainly on its surface properties. The surface of a polymeric biomaterial is defined with respect to the biomedical application and the host tissue environment in which the material is intended to perform. Biocompatibility of a polymer implant is directly related to its surface properties. A polymer implant with rough surface accelerates thrombus... 

This chapter on polyphosphazenes provides the reader an overview of the synthesis and side group chemistry in context to the degradation profile and biocompatibility. In addition, it reviews the medical applications developed using biodegradable polyphosphazenes specifically drug delivery matrices and tissue-engineering scaffolds. 

Zhang et al. also used a blend of natural and synthetic polymers to try and improve the biocompatibility, mechanical, chemical, and physical properties of tissue engineering scaffolds [42], In this study, the natural polymer, silk fibroin, was selected for biocompatibility, permeability. 

Cell-derived ECM has been coated on scaffolds to enhance the biocompatibility and osteoconductive properties of tissue-engineered scaffolds for bone repair (Decaris et al., 2012a Sadr et al., 2012 Pati et al., 2014). Cells are seeded on scaffolds to allow them to proliferate with or without osteogenic supplements, and then decellularization is performed, followed by the study of the reseeded cell behaviors on this ECM/scaf-fold construct and the evolution of bone healing in vivo. Numerous studies showed that cell expansion and differentiation capacities were significantly improved by... 

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