Biomaterials and its Applications in Tissue Engineering

Medical textiles are one the most rapidly growing sector in technical textile market. Medical Textile involves the combination of textile technology and medical sciences. Application of textiles in medicine includes extra corporeal, implantable, non-implantable, health and hygiene products. In implantable and extracorporeal devices, biomaterials are the base to produce the end products. Biomaterials can be Ceramics, Metals, and Polymers. In textile field, polymers are taken as a base material, from which woven/knitted/braided/nonwoven fabrics are produced for Medical applications. Tissue engineering is one of the emerging fields, in which biomaterial polymers are widely used. Mostly widely biodegradable polymers are used, and nanofibers are produced from that which is further converted into fabrics, to be used for tissue engineering applications. Nanofibers can be produced by both naturally occurring and synthetic polymers by various techniques like Rotary Jet Spinning method, Electrospinning, Centrifugal Spinning etc. When spun, the material stretches much like molten sugar does as it begins to dry into thin, silky ribbons. The most commonly used natural biopolymers for tissue engineering include silk, chitosan, collagen, etc. Synthetic polymers include degradable polymers such as, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polylactic acid (PLA), polyurethane (PU) etc. The biodegradable nanofibers are used in the areas of tissue engineering such as neural, bone, cartilage, skeletal muscle, blood vessel, skin and ligament. , Polymers possess great biocompatibility, good mechanical strength, good biodegradability, and it is used to replace diseased part, assists in healing, improves or corrects the function also assists in cell adhesion, growth, proliferation.