Polymer- and Hybrid-Based Biomaterials for Interstitial, Connective, Vascular, Nerve, Visceral and Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering

Abstract

In this review, materials based on polymers and hybrids possessing both organic and inorganic contents for repairing or facilitating cell growth in tissue engineering are discussed. Pure polymer based biomaterials are predominantly used to target soft tissues. Stipulated by possibilities of tuning the composition and concentration of their inorganic content, hybrid materials allow to mimic properties of various types of harder tissues. That leads to the concept of "one-matches-all" referring to materials possessing the same polymeric base, but different inorganic content to enable tissue growth and repair, proliferation of cells, and the formation of the ECM (extra cellular matrix). Furthermore, adding drug delivery carriers to coatings and scaffolds designed with such materials brings additional functionality by encapsulating active molecules, antibacterial agents, and growth factors. We discuss here materials and methods of their assembly from a general perspective together with their applications in various tissue engineering sub-areas: interstitial, connective, vascular, nervous, visceral and musculoskeletal tissues. The overall aims of this review are two-fold: (a) to describe the needs and opportunities in the field of bio-medicine, which should be useful for material scientists, and (b) to present capabilities and resources available in the area of materials, which should be of interest for biologists and medical doctors.Polymers 2020, 12, 620 2 of 30 allows to tailor functionalize the coatings, where their responsiveness to external stimuli is one of their biggest advantages.Polymers stand out as a special class of materials due to the flexibility of design of their blocks and various functionalities, which is brought by their versatile assembly or by introducing additional side-groups or blocks, in the case of block-co-polymers. In this regard, both synthetic and biocompatible polymers are available, and polymer engineering represents a growing area tailoring the needs often driven by applications. With all advantages and the flexibility of the design, there is one significant weakness of polymers-the softness. In regard with tissue engineering, that translates to the fact that some materials can match predominantly soft tissue, but it is difficult to tune mechanical properties of polymers to match the hardness of bones, tendons, etc. And since mechanical properties of materials affect and even drive cell and tissue growth, enhancement of mechanical properties of polymers and biomaterials is essential. Chemical crosslinking can be applied to address these challenges, but that solves problems only partially.To solve these challenges the so-called hybrid materials [6] are used, which possess both inorganic and organic contents. Increasingly, hybrid materials are used in designing the extracellular matrix. The hybrid matrix design for various tissue engineering applications should meet bio-medical requirements. On the one hand, it needs to be biocompatible and biodegradable, which is achieved through the po...

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