Crosslinking collagen constructs: Achieving cellular selectivity through modifications of physical and chemical properties

Abstract

Collagen-based constructs have emerged in recent years as ideal candidates for tissue engineering implants. For many biomedical applications, collagen is crosslinked in order to improve the strength, stiffness and stability of the construct. However, the crosslinking process may also result in unintended changes to cell viability, adhesion or proliferation on the treated structures. This review provides a brief overview of some of both the most commonly used and novel crosslinkers used with collagen, and suggests a framework by which crosslinking methods can be compared and selected for a given tissue engineering application.