Fibrin-based biomaterial applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Abstract

The fibrin matrix is fundamentally formed by the polymerization of fibrinogen and thrombin in blood plasma. It is a natural biopolymeric material to widely investigate for various tissue regenerations due to good biocompatibility, rapid biodegradability, and easy fabrication. In particular, the conjugated bioactive molecules with fibrinogen can promote tissue morphogenesis or maturation after cell adhesion on the matrices, migration, proliferation, or differentiation. Using these physiological properties with cell-material interactions, the fibrin matrices have been utilized in tissue engineering applications such as skin tissue, cardiovascular tissue, musculoskeletal tissue, or nerve tissue in preclinical and clinical situations. This chapter demonstrates the fibrin material and its tissue engineering applications as the therapeutic strategies.