Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
10
Assembly of Polymers/Metal Nanoparticles
and their Applications as Medical Devices
Magdalena Stevanović
Institute of Technical Sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract
Metallic nanoparticles have attracted much attention and have found applications
in dif erent i elds such as medicine, pharmacy, controlled drug delivery, optics,
electronics, and other areas. Among the most promising nanomaterials with anti-
bacterial and antiviral properties are metallic nanoparticles (silver, gold, platinum,
etc), which exhibit increased chemical activity due to their large surface to volume
ratios, crystallographic surface structure and unique size-dependent optical, elec-
trical and magnetic properties. However, it has been reported that bare metallic
nanoparticles can be toxic. h is supports the concept that this toxicity is associated
to the presence of the bare metallic nanoparticle surface, while particles protected
by an organic layer, i.e. polymer, are much more biocompatible, and thereby less
toxic. Unrelated to the bare metallic surface, several recent studies indicate that,
at a cellular level, metal nanoparticles interact with biological molecules within
mammalian cells and can interfere with the antioxidant defense mechanism lead-
ing to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Increase of ROS levels may
result in signii cant damage to cell structures known as oxidative stress.
h is review article reports on obtaining metallic nanoparticles with special
emphasis on obtaining silver nanoparticles, their incorporation within various
polymer materials, physiochemical and biological properties of such obtained sys-
tems as well as about their application as medical devices.
Keywords:
Metal nanoparticles, polymers, silver nanoparticles, medical devices
