Applications of bacterial cellulose and its composites in biomedicine

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose produced by few but specific microbial genera is an extremely pure natural exopolysaccharide. Besides providing adhesive properties and a competitive advantage to the cellulose over-producer, bacterial cellulose confers UV protection, ensures maintenance of an aerobic environment, retains moisture, protects against heavy metal stress, etc. This unique nanostructured matrix is being widely explored for various medical and nonmedical applications. It can be produced in various shapes and forms because of which it finds varied uses in biomedicine. The attributes of bacterial cellulose such as biocompatibility, haemocompatibility, mechanical strength, microporosity and biodegradability with its unique surface chemistry make it ideally suited for a plethora of biomedical applications. This review highlights these qualities of bacterial cellulose in detail with emphasis on reports that prove its utility in biomedicine. It also gives an in-depth account of various biomedical applications ranging from implants and scaffolds for tissue engineering, carriers for drug delivery, wound-dressing materials, etc. that are reported until date. Besides, perspectives on limitations of commercialisation of bacterial cellulose have been presented. This review is also an update on the variety of low-cost substrates used for production of bacterial cellulose and its nonmedical applications and includes patents and commercial products based on bacterial cellulose.

Bacterial cellulose–TiO2nanocomposites promote healing and tissue regeneration in burn mice model

“…Wound area measured on respective days is given in Table 2. In all animals, the wound area on day 0 was 289 mm 2 These ndings clearly indicate that the incorporation of nanoparticles in BC signicantly improved its healing potential. Physical contraction of the wound is presumably due to the activity of contractile broblasts, which is a critical feature of remodeling phase.…”

“Deceived” Concentrated Immobilized Cells as Biocatalyst for Intensive Bacterial Cellulose Production from Various Sources

“…Currently, the interest in bacterial cellulose (BC) is increasing because of its possible use in such areas as medicine, food and textile industries, the production of new nanocomposite materials based on it and the solution of environmental problems [1][2][3][4]. First of all, this is due to the fact that BC is nontoxic and biocompatible material with an increased water-holding capacity, high tensile strength, as well as elasticity and porosity [5,6].…”

Controllable Fabrication of BC Based on Time Growth

“…Due to the versatile properties of this highly functional biopolymer, BC can be assigned in numerous end-uses, including scaffold for tissue engineering and wound healing applications, artificial skin in extensive burns, skin tissue repair, artificial blood vessels for microsurgery, sound transducing membranes, optically transparent composites, in paper manufacturing, and in the food industry as a thickening and stabilizing agent. [11][12][13] As results show, mainly due to bacterial cellulose's amorphous structure, it is a gel containing 99% of water by weight. However, it is a laborious task to comparing the waterholding capacities of various BC specimens because dissimilar approaches have been used.…”