Citrate-Based Biomaterials and Their Applications in Regenerative Engineering

Abstract

Advances in biomaterials science and engineering are crucial to translating regenerative engineering, an emerging field that aims to recreate complex tissues, into clinical practice. In this regard, citrate-based biomaterials have become an important tool owing to their versatile material and biological characteristics including unique antioxidant, antimicrobial, adhesive, and fluorescent properties. This review discusses fundamental design considerations, strategies to incorporate unique functionality, and examples of how citrate-based biomaterials can be an enabling technology for regenerative engineering.

Design strategies and applications of biomaterials and devices for Hernia repair

“…Soft tissue engineering has previously been limited by the mismatch of the physical, particularly mechanical, properties of commonly used thermoset materials such as PLA, PLGA and PCL with the native extracellular matrix (ECM) [96]. This mechanical mismatch prompts inflammation and scar formation, limiting the integration of the implanted material with the host tissue.…”

“…While materials such as these have formed the cornerstone of tissue engineering, a new generation of biomaterial design must take into consideration the native ECM structure towards improving clinical outcomes. Inspired by the three-dimensional crosslinked ECM network, composed of collagen, glycosaminoglycans and elastin, our group has developed a family of citrate-based elastomers (CBEs) capable of mimicking the mechanical properties and structural integrity of ECM [96]. The mechanical properties, functionality and degradation rate of these elastomers can be readily tuned via modulation of the crosslinking degree, allowing them to be adapted for a number of applications including hernia repair.…”

Flexible biodegradable citrate-based polymeric step-index optical fiber

“…Citric acid, a Krebs cycle intermediate is the key component used in the citrate methodology, through which various crosslinkable elastomeric polymers can be synthesized by reacting the multifunctional citric acid with different diols and/or amino acids via a facile polycondensation reaction[10–13]. Unlike natural materials (e.g., silk) or traditional synthetic polymers (e.g., poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA)) that usually have limited tunability for key optical, mechanical, and/or degradation properties, the family of citrate-based biodegradable elastomers possesses tunable mechanical strengths (from tens of Pascal to mega Pascal), programmable degradation rates (from a few days to over a year), reactive nature between citrate-based polymers, multi-functionalities (e.g., adhesive, fluorescent)[14], and as shown in this work, ultrafine tuning of refractive index (~10 −3 )(Figure 1c). Citrate-based elastomers have been used as implant materials for diverse applications such as soft tissue engineering (blood vessel, nerve, and skin)[15–17], bone tissue engineering[18–21], wound healing and bioadhesives[22–26], theranostic nanoparticles for cancer imaging and drug delivery[12,27–33], and biosensing[34].…”

Synthesis, Characterization and Biological Studies of Novel Biodegradable Aconitic Acid Based Copolyester for Application in Skin Tissue Engineering

“…The monomers chosen play an important role for determining and controlling the functionality, degradability and biocompatibility of the biomaterials to be produced [12]. Many such elastomers based on multifunctional monomers such as citric acid have been reported [6,[11][12][13].…”

“…Many such elastomers based on multifunctional monomers such as citric acid have been reported [6,[11][12][13]. Investigations on aconitic acid based monomers are comparative less and Kanitkar et al [10] have synthesized and characterized aconitic acid based polyester.…”