Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
well the increased interest in the ceramic domain opened the way for
new materials, endowed with physicochemical and mechanical
properties as diverse as they were interesting. “Polymers” or plastic
materials, ceramics and metals will be detailed further in the following
chapters. Biomaterials used diversified and the science of biomaterials
was born. Biomaterials were first “classified” as a category of
materials, needing specific properties for one biomedical application.
Today the applications are multiple: implants and prostheses for all
surgeries, biodegradable scaffolds for tissue engineering, cell therapy
and regenerative medicine, nanotechnologies, drug delivery
mechanisms. Therefore biomaterials used for medical applications,
engendered increasing derivatives; they are also used to grow cells, to
control protein adsorption (purification, separation, competition…), to
deliver therapeutic agents, as biosensors etc.
The evolution of biomaterials science tended to propose a “third
generation” of biomaterial issued from new research areas with the
aim of proposing better solutions to replace deficient organs and
prevent the hostile host responses encountered when materials are
implanted for the long term. Among these solutions, we find:
- the synthesis or the elaboration of new polymer, metallic or
ceramic materials arising from the most recent research in
macromolecular chemistry, metallurgy or inorganic chemistry. They
represent a new generation of materials capable of offering properties
which are very specific and/or even not yet known;
- the surface modification of materials still used as biomaterial
implants or prostheses in order to improve their biological properties
and induced host response - adsorption of proteins and physiologic
fluids, cells response, surrounding tissues integration. There are
several techniques to modify surfaces: coating, deep-coating,
physisorption, chemical grafting. The purpose is to bind a molecule of
biological interest to the surface of an implant made of a polymeric,
metallic or ceramic material to induce a better
hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance (make hydrophilic a hydrophobic
surface), specificity (lead a perfectly controlled and precise biologic
response) or bioactivity (modulate the host response);
