Application of Chitosan in Bone and Dental Engineering

Abstract

Chitosan is a deacetylated polysaccharide from chitin, the natural biopolymer primarily found in shells of marine crustaceans and fungi cell walls. Upon deacetylation, the protonation of free amino groups of the d-glucosamine residues of chitosan turns it into a polycation, which can easily interact with DNA, proteins, lipids, or negatively charged synthetic polymers. This positive-charged characteristic of chitosan not only increases its solubility, biodegradability, and biocompatibility, but also directly contributes to the muco-adhesion, hemostasis, and antimicrobial properties of chitosan. Combined with its low-cost and economic nature, chitosan has been extensively studied and widely used in biopharmaceutical and biomedical applications for several decades. In this review, we summarize the current chitosan-based applications for bone and dental engineering. Combining chitosan-based scaffolds with other nature or synthetic polymers and biomaterials induces their mechanical properties and bioactivities, as well as promoting osteogenesis. Incorporating the bioactive molecules into these biocomposite scaffolds accelerates new bone regeneration and enhances neovascularization in vivo.

Antibacterial and Osteoconductive Effects of Chitosan/Polyethylene Oxide (PEO)/Bioactive Glass Nanofibers for Orthopedic Applications

“…Among these there are bioactive glasses (BGs), which are commonly used as promising scaffold materials for bone and soft tissue regeneration [19]. For orthopedic applications, different composite nanofiber scaffolds have been developed using CS and other polymers and incorporating bioactive glasses [20][21][22][23][24]. However, in literature no comparison of these composite coatings with uncoated titanium alloys has been yet provided in order to evaluate effectively the antibacterial effect and the simultaneous osteoconductive activity.…”

Extraction and Physicochemical Characterization of Chitin Derived from the Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina Lepeletier 1836 (Hym.: Vespidae)

“…The great variety of applications of chitosan in the field of biomaterials is due to its excellent properties when interacting with the human body: bioactivity [11], antimicrobial and antifungal activity [12,13], immunostimulation [14], chemotactic action, enzymatic biodegradability, mucoadhesion, and epithelial permeability [15], which supports the adhesion and proliferation of different cell types [16]. With the above properties, CHI derivatives serve a broad range of applications and these materials have advanced at a dramatic pace into many fields, including skin, wound, and burn management [17]; drug delivery and pharmaceutical applications [18]; tissue engineering [19]; dentistry [20]; plant science and agriculture [21]; veterinary science [22]; cosmetics and cosmeceutical [23]; food and nutraceuticals [24]; and, paper industry [25], among others.…”

Nanomaterials for Periodontal Tissue Engineering: Chitosan-Based Scaffolds. A Systematic Review

“…This biomaterial is biocompatible, biodegradable, and osteoconductive, facilitating the adhesion and proliferation of cells on its surface. The CS-based scaffold can be combined with other polymers and molecules in order to improve its mechanical and biological properties [48,49]. As a confirmation of this, in all the selected studies the data obtained from the analysis of the mineralization level, cell proliferation/viability, and alkaline phosphatase activity demonstrated that pure chitosan scaffolds were less effective at regenerating the bone tissue than the chitosan-based scaffolds combined with other biomaterials, molecules, and stem cells.…”