Scaffolds Based Bone Tissue Engineering: The Role of Chitosan

Abstract

As life expectancy increases, malfunction or loss of tissue caused by injury or disease leads to reduced quality of life in many patients at significant socioeconomic cost. Even though major progress has been made in the field of bone tissue engineering, present therapies, such as bone grafts, still have limitations. Current research on biodegradable polymers is emerging, combining these structures with osteogenic cells, as an alternative to autologous bone grafts. Different types of biodegradable materials have been proposed for the preparation of three-dimensional porous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Among them, natural polymers are one of the most attractive options, mainly due to their similarities with extracellular matrix, chemical versatility, good biological performance, and inherent cellular interactions. In this review, special attention is given to chitosan as a biomaterial for bone tissue engineering applications. An extensive literature survey was performed on the preparation of chitosan scaffolds and their in vitro biological performance as well as their potential to facilitate in vivo bone regeneration. The present review also aims to offer the reader a general overview of all components needed to engineer new bone tissue. It gives a brief background on bone biology, followed by an explanation of all components in bone tissue engineering, as well as describing different tissue engineering strategies. Moreover, also discussed are the typical models used to evaluate in vitro functionality of a tissue-engineered construct and in vivo models to assess the potential to regenerate bone tissue are discussed.

Synthesis and Characterization of Chitosan/Gum Arabic Nanoparticles for Bone Regeneration

“…The high occurrence of these conditions are evidence by more than 2.2 million bone graft used in orthopaedic annually worldwide [1]. Bone grafts are used to augments or stimulates the formation of new bone, in cases such as the healing of the skeletal fractures, or between bones across a diseased joint; to replace and regenerate lost bone as a result of trauma, infection, or disease or to improve bone healing response and regeneration of tissues around surgical implanted devices.…”

“…The tissue regeneration of these bone graft is measured in terms of their osteogenic, osteoconductive and osteoinductive potential [2]. Autografts are considered the gold standard for bone repair; however, such as bone donor site morbidity ( [1,3]). Another alternative is the allograft, which is bone tissue from cadaver or living donors, eliminates donor site morbidity, but has the potential risk of adverse immunological response and also lacks osteogenic capacity of autograft [4].…”

Effect of Chitosan on Expression of Osteogenic Genes during the Healing of Rat Extraction Socket

“…The solubility of chitosan depends on the free amino and N-acetyl groups, which are soluble in acidic pH 18) . Chitosan, used in this study, presents a wide range of properties that make it appropriate for tissue engineering applications because of its biodegradability, biocompatibility, antibacterial activity, wound healing properties, and bioadhesive character 9) . One of the most important characteristic of chitosan, for tissue engineering applications, is its ability to be shaped into various form, such as microspheres, paste, membranes, sponges, fibers and porous scaffolds 19) .…”

“…To accomplish the goals of tissue engineering, scaffolds should satisfy the following requirements; should be porous to allow placement of cells and growth factors, should allow effective transport of nutrients, oxygen, and waste, should be biodegradable, leaving no toxic byproducts, should be replaced by regenerative tissue while retaining the shape and form of the final tissue structure, should be biocompatible and should have adequate physical and mechanical strength 8) . In recent studies, naturally derived polymers have been proposed for the scaffold such as starch, gellan gum, soy, silk and chitosan 9) . In particular, chitosan has shown an excellent combination of properties and it has been demonstrated that it is suitable biomaterial for the development of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.…”

“…In particular, chitosan has shown an excellent combination of properties and it has been demonstrated that it is suitable biomaterial for the development of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Chitosan can be used either alone, or in combination with other biodegradable polymers such as starch or silk, or with ceramics such as hydroxyapatite 9) . This study was performed to evaluate the effect of chitosan combined with absorbable gelatin compressed sponge on the expression of osteoblastic differentiation marker genes during the healing of rat extraction socket.…”