Biomimetic Polysaccharides and Derivatives for Cartilage Tissue Regeneration - Biomimetics: Advancing Nanobiomaterials and Tissue Engineering - page 7

Table 1.1

(

Cont.

)

Natural
Polymers

Advantages Disadvantages References

Gelatin Highly biocom-

patible and
biodegradable.

Animal derived
product, highly
expensive and
batch-to-batch
variation. Low
mechanical
strength.

[7, 30, 31]

Hyaluronic
acid

No immunogenic
properties, ease
of chain size
manipulation,
Interactions
with cell-surface
receptors.
Production
through large-
scale microbial
fermentation.

Water solubil-
ity. Its anionic
surface does not
thermodynami-
cally promote
cell attachment
and tissue
formation.

[5, 6, 10, 68]

Silk fi broin Long standing

history of use in
clinical appli-
cations. Slow
degradability,
versatility in pro-
cessing, remark-
able mechanical
strength and
thermal stabil-
ity. Genetically
tailorable
composition and
sequence.

Purifi cation
necessary.
Contamination
from residual
sericin may
cause bio-
compatibility
problems.

[7, 32, 33]

Starch-based
materials

Inexpensive, suit-
able for process-
ing by diverse
techniques and
into diverse
shapes.

In vivo degrada-
tion has not
yet been fully
assessed.