A multipurpose natural and renewable polymer in medical applications: Bacterial cellulose

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) produced by some bacteria, among them Gluconacetobacter xylinum, which secrets an abundant 3D networks fibrils, represents an interesting emerging biocompatible nanomaterial. Since its discovery BC has shown tremendous potential in a wide range of biomedical applications, such as artificial skin, artificial blood vessels and microvessels, wound dressing, among others. BC can be easily manipulated to improve its properties and/or functionalities resulting in several BC based nanocomposites. As example BC/collagen, BC/gelatin, BC/Fibroin, BC/Chitosan, etc. Thus, the aim of this review is to discuss about the applicability in biomedicine by demonstrating a variety of forms of this biopolymer highlighting in detail some qualities of bacterial cellulose. Therefore, various biomedical applications ranging from implants and scaffolds, carriers for drug delivery, wound-dressing materials, etc. that were reported until date will be presented.

Gelatin‐polysaccharide composite scaffolds for 3D cell culture and tissue engineering: Towards natural therapeutics

“…Cellulose and its derivatives, such as cellulose acetate have been used for 3D cellular engineering . Recently, they have been used for the synthesis of cellulose nanoparticles, hydrogels, aerogels, and films for a wide range of biomedical applications, summarized in Figure a . There are several approaches for designing cellulose‐based hydrogels, including the partial modification of hydroxyl groups by charged groups, promoting physical crosslinking .…”

Biodegradable polymer films from seaweed polysaccharides: A review on cellulose as a reinforcement material

“…They also possess a higher water holding capacity, a higher degree of polymerization (4000-6000) and a finer web-like network than the cellulose from plants. Because of these excellent properties, BC has a wide range of applications from food to functional materials such as diaphragms in speakers and headphones, electronic devices, wound dressings, additives in paper, membrane filters and more [34,36,50,51].…”

Bacterial nanocelullose in biomedical applications: a review

“…BNC as a new material is considered as a new solution to unsolved problems . Many excellent review articles regarding BNC have been published and the amount of scientific literature is growing exponentially . In the following sections, selected current and forward‐looking hot topics of BNC research, development and applications are discussed in more detail, including the production of BNC and the scale‐up, product design and structural characterization.…”