Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1 6
Medical Applications of Cellulose and Its
Derivatives: Present and Future
Karthika Ammini Sindhu
*,
1
, Raghavan Prasanth
2
and Vijay Kumar h
akur
3
1
Department of Pediatrics, Oman Medical Complex, Sultanate of Oman
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas,
USA
3
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman,
Washington, USA
Abstract
Cellulose is a naturally occurring material found in wood, cotton, hemp, and other plant-based
materials, and consists of repeating anhydroglucose units joined by ß-(1,4) linkages forming
the basic repeating unit. It was i rst isolated from wood in 1885 by Charles F. Cross and Edward
Bevan at the Jodrell Laboratory of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London. Cellulose is well
known as one of the most abundant biodegradable materials in nature and has been widely used
in medical applications such as wound dressing, tissue engineering, controllable drug delivery
system, blood purii cation, etc., due to its biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, biodegradable, non-
toxicity and antimicrobial properties. Although the primary use of cellulose i lms has been for
wrapping purposes, it has also found an application in the treatment of renal failure, as well as
in a variety of more recent and evolving clinical applications such as for scaf olds in tissue engi-
neering, temporary skin substitute, haemostatic agent, post-operative adhesion barrier, and as
a culture material for hepatocytes. Recently, there has been a decline in the use of many of the
clinical applications of cellulose such as i lm and tubes manufactured from cellulose, which have
historically been used for the treatment of renal failure, dialysis, etc., and new applications for
its use are emerging. Among those that appear to be most promising is the use of microbial cel-
lulose synthesized by Acetobacter xylinum, which shows vast potential as a novel wound heal-
ing system and scaf old for tissue regeneration. In this chapter, the use of cellulose in medical
applications is reviewed and discussed.
Keywords:
Cellulose, microbial cellulose, cellulose acetate, biopolymer, biocompatibil-
ity, nanocomposite, composite materials, medical applications,
implant materials, tissue
engineering
