23 - Biopolymers and biocomposites: Nature’s tools for wound healing and tissue engineering

Abstract

Wound care and tissue regeneration is a global challenge and affects millions of populations. The process of wound healing and tissue repair is inherently complex in nature. Lifestyle and anthropogenic factors increase the risk in wound care and management. Even after advancements in medicine, chronic wounds and risk of sepsis continue to remain major concerns in healthcare with a high mortality rate. The application of biocomposites and biomaterials derived from silk, cellulose, alginate, chitin, hyaluronate, collagen, and gelatin is gaining popularity owing to attributes like bioactive nature, biocompatibility, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, and angiogenic effects. Recently, application of bioactive glass in wound healing and blood clotting process is also being explored exclusively. With the current knowledge in the material science, nanotechnology, and regenerative medicine, these properties can be enhanced to improve efficacy in wound care like tissue repair, restoration of lost tissue integrity, and scar less healing. In this direction, the progress in regenerative medicine will continue to provide a platform for cellular therapy, growth factor delivery, and fabrication of extracellular matrix alternatives. In this chapter, we have discussed in quite detail, the key challenges in wound healing and tissue engineering highlighting the contemporary nanotechnology based solutions to address current limitations in biomaterial fabrication and scaffold designing.