Biodegradable Aliphatic Polyesters for Application in Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Designing scaffolds with physical, mechanical, and biological properties like those of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the target tissue, is the most critical challenge in tissue engineering. Ideally, proper cell proliferation can simultaneously occur with the degradation of the scaffold to finally restore and create the desired tissue within the scaffold. The use of biodegradable polymers or a combination of these polymers and ceramics, metals or carbon leads to the fabrication of scaffolds with the required properties. Thus far, different natural and synthetic polymers have been proposed for this purpose, of which aliphatic biodegradable and biocompatible polyesters as a result of their predictable and adjustable properties have been known as one of the best polymeric matrices in designing scaffolds used in tissue engineering. Due to the unique properties of these polymers, the number of research works performed on them for application in tissue engineering is increasing and therefore it is necessary to review the goals and challenges ahead. Accordingly, the present work has attempted to re-examine studies performed on widely used biodegradable aliphatic polyesters including poly(lactic acid)(PLA), poly(glycolic acid)(PGA), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), polycaprolactone (PCL), and the family of microbial polyesters of the polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), especially poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) as well as poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) copolymer. This article specially focuses on the synthetic techniques and structural, physical, mechanical, and biological properties of these polymers to overcome the challenging task of designing ECM-like scaffolds by evaluating the various physical and chemical modification methods reported in recent research papers. The present study also reviews and discusses the application of these polyesters in soft and hard tissue engineering, such as bone, cartilage, ligament, tendon, muscle, spleen, cornea, and skin.

Keywords

• polyester
• biodegradable
• tissue engineering
• extracellular matrix
• biocompatible