Chitosan-based systems in tissue engineering

Abstract

Chitosan is a unique, naturally obtained polysaccharide derived from chitin. As a biomaterial, it attains immense interest for tissue engineering due to its biocompatibility and biodegradation which also exhibits desired properties such as bactericidal, fungicidal, and enhanced immune activity. Chitosanbased materials are mainly focused on fabricating scaffolds for tissue engineering. The ideal features of scaffolds are three-dimensional, highly porous, biocompatible, and bioresorbable, with cell attachment, proliferation, and implantation. Especially, these scaffolds have distinctive advantages, such as preservation of cellular binding and bioactive factor enrichment. This chapter highlights chitosan-based scaffolds and its composites having higher potential to be employed in bone, cartilage, liver, nerve, and musculoskeletal tissue engineering.