Biodegradable Polymers for Biomedical and Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Currently, scientists are on the cutting edge of inventing many novel biomaterials from various sources for selection in tissue engineering and controlled drug delivery systems to improvise the patient surgical and treatment processes. This article focuses on the significant improvements made in the design of natural, biodegradable polymer‐based biomaterials and their applications in biomedical and tissue engineering areas. Polysaccharide and protein‐based hydrogels are suitable for soft and hard biomaterials. The soft biomaterial is made of biodegradable natural or synthetic or in a combination of both polymers that can be utilized for a stipulated time and cleared partly or whole of the system that it treats, enhance the rate of healing or replace tissues or organs. Soft biomaterials fabricated for muscle, ligament, tendon, articular cartilage tissue engineering exhibit valuable properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, flexible, renewability, and cheaper. The combination of the polysaccharides and proteins with synthetic biodegradable polymers improved the mechanical strength and when added with inorganic calcium compounds could be exploited in hard tissue engineering, such as bone tissue engineering. The development of biomaterial for scaffolding in tissue engineering using polysaccharides and proteins could lead to the emergence of a new era of safer material to replace the damaged tissues in the body without suffering inflammation. Polysaccharides and proteins are consumed as food, and treating damaged tissue with food‐based biomaterial would not harm the humankind. In the near future, the development of natural polymer‐based biodegradable biomaterials by interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research scientists is highly important.