Abstract
Cellulose is the most abundant polysaccharide on Earth. It can be obtained from a vast number of sources, e.g. cell walls of wood and plants, some species of bacteria, and algae, as well as tunicates, which are the only known cellulose-containing animals. This inherent abundance naturally paves the way for discovering new applications for this versatile material. This review provides an extensive survey on cellulose and its derivatives, their structural and biochemical properties, with an overview of applications in tissue engineering, wound dressing, and drug delivery systems. Based on the available means of selecting the physical features, dimensions, and shapes, cellulose exists in the morphological forms of fiber, microfibril/nanofibril, and micro/nanocrystalline cellulose. These different cellulosic particle types arise due to the inherent diversity among the source of organic materials or due to the specific conditions of biosynthesis and processing that determine the consequent geometry and dimension of cellulosic particles. These different cellulosic particles, as building blocks, produce materials of different microstructures and properties, which are needed for numerous biomedical applications. Despite having great potential for applications in various fields, the extensive use of cellulose has been mainly limited to industrial use, with less early interest towards the biomedical field. Therefore, this review highlights recent developments in the preparation methods of cellulose and its derivatives that create novel properties benefiting appropriate biomedical applications.
Highlights
The increasing demand for bio-based materials is gaining more attention for immediate applications in biomedical fields such as tissue engineering, wound healing, and drug delivery
This review summarized the preparation of cellulose and its derivatives from different sources, with a focus on specific properties that include structure at molecular and microscopic levels, solubility in certain liquids, and mechanical properties, with further emphasis on their versatility for applications in the biomedical field
Recent advances show that cellulosic materials prove to have inherent characteristics that can be tailored for a broad range of biomedical applications, in tissue engineering, and for the development of drug delivery and wound dressing systems
Summary
The increasing demand for bio-based materials is gaining more attention for immediate applications in biomedical fields such as tissue engineering, wound healing, and drug delivery. The chemical structure of hydroxypropyl cellulose can be further modified due to its backbone reactive hydroxyl groups, which may provide new properties that are of interest for biomedical applications e.g. drug delivery and tissue engineering. Apart from the simplicity in preparation, affordable cost, and large-scale production, cellulose sulfate’s excellent biocompatibility, film-forming ability, and biodegradability makes it a frontrunner for potential biomedical applications like tissue engineering (Palaninathan et al 2018) and drug delivery (Su et al 2019). Cellulose offers unique features of biodegradability, biocompatibility, low production cost as compared to synthetic biopolymers, abundance, sustainable resources, nontoxicity, and excellent mechanical properties These features offer potential as bioresorbable polymers that plays an increasingly important role in biomedical applications due to their unique ability to be resorbed entirely in pre-designed time frames ranging from months to a few years. The porous and spongy structure of a hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose hydrogel allows for a long-term release profile in vitro, which provides excellent potential for usage in sustained antibiotic delivery (Mahmoudian and Ganji 2017)
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