Chitosan-based nanocomposites for medical applications

Titelangaben

Selvakumar, Murugesan ; Scheibel, Thomas:
Chitosan-based nanocomposites for medical applications.
In: Journal of Polymer Science. Bd. 59 (2021) Heft 15 . - S. 1610-1642.
ISSN 2642-4169
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pol.20210251

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Abstract

Chitosan as a biobased polymer is gaining increasing attention due to its extraordinary physico-chemical characteristics and properties. While a primary use of chitosan has been in horticultural and agricultural applications for plant defense and to increase crop yield, recent research reports display various new utilizations in the field of advanced biomedical devices, targeted drug delivery, and as bioimaging sensors. Chitosan possesses multiple characteristics such as antimicrobial properties, stimuli-responsiveness, tunable mechanical strength, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and water-solubility. Further, chitosan can be processed into nanoparticles, nano-vehicles, nanocapsules, scaffolds, fiber meshes, and 3D printed scaffolds for a variety of applications. In recent times, nanoparticles incorporated in chitosan matrices have been identified to show superior biological activity, as cells tend to proliferate/differentiate faster when they interact with nanocomposites rather than bulk or micron size substrates/scaffolds. The present article intents to cover chitosan-based nanocomposites used for regenerative medicine, wound dressings, drug delivery, and biosensing applications.