Delivery systems made of natural-origin polymers for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications

Abstract

There is an emergent need in the development of more specific and effective therapeutic agent carriers to help on the regeneration of a plethora of tissues. The ultimate aim of bioactive factors delivery systems development is to improve the human health with the fewest possible adverse reactions. While there have been many polymeric scaffolds and matrices with different forms and compositions developed to load and deliver bioactive factors, the delivery strategy should be established based on the type of molecules to deliver and mechanisms to control their release. As most bioactive factors such as proteins and genes are water-soluble, natural polymers are more favored than synthetic ones for this purpose. A core-shell structuring of biomaterials (in the cases of particles or fibers) where water-based polymers being placed in the inner core part may be the most common design principal to secure bioactive factors during the processing of synthetic drug delivery scaffolds.