Abstract
Tissue engineering/regeneration is based on the hypothesis that healthy stem/progenitor cells either recruited or delivered to an injured site, can eventually regenerate lost or damaged tissue. Most of the researchers working in tissue engineering and regenerative technology attempt to create tissue replacements by culturing cells onto synthetic porous three-dimensional polymeric scaffolds, which is currently regarded as an ideal approach to enhance functional tissue regeneration by creating and maintaining channels that facilitate progenitor cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. The requirements that must be satisfied by such scaffolds include providing a space with the proper size, shape and porosity for tissue development and permitting cells from the surrounding tissue to migrate into the matrix. Recently, chitin scaffolds have been widely used in tissue engineering due to their non-toxic, biodegradable and biocompatible nature. The advantage of chitin as a tissue engineering biomaterial lies in that it can be easily processed into gel and scaffold forms for a variety of biomedical applications. Moreover, chitin has been shown to enhance some biological activities such as immunological, antibacterial, drug delivery and have been shown to promote better healing at a faster rate and exhibit greater compatibility with humans. This review provides an overview of the current status of tissue engineering/regenerative medicine research using chitin scaffolds for bone, cartilage and wound healing applications. We also outline the key challenges in this field and the most likely directions for future development and we hope that this review will be helpful to the researchers working in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Highlights
Chitin, extracted primarily from shellfish sources, is a unique biopolymer based on theN-acetyl-glucosamine monomer
Cell attachment studies revealed that cells were able to attach and spread throughout the nanofibrous scaffolds. These results indicated that the nanofibrous carboxymethyl chitin (CMC)/PVA scaffold support cell adhesion/attachment and proliferation and this scaffold can be a useful candidate for bone tissue engineering [10]
For regeneration of complex human organs, highly porous and fortified 3D molds are indispensable. Hydrogel scaffold such as chitin is greatly used for improving the functionality of tissue-engineered constructs
Summary
Chitin, extracted primarily from shellfish sources, is a unique biopolymer based on the. Together with its derivatives, has been shown to be useful as a wound dressing material, drug delivery vehicle and an essential candidate for tissue engineering The promise for this biomaterial is vast and will grow as and when the chemistry extends its capabilities with further investigations of new biomedical applications. A primary limiting factor in tissue engineering research is the availability of suitable biomaterials to serve as the temporary matrix These biomaterials must be capable of being prepared in various shapes and sizes with sufficient porosity to offer a channel for the migration of host cells into the matrix, permitting growth into complete tissue analogs and be biodegradable generating non-toxic products once they have served their function in vivo. This review presents an overview of the more recent research area of orthopedic, bone and wound tissue engineering applications of chitin scaffolds
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