Prospects of bioactive chitosan-based scaffolds in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Abstract

Chitosan, a natural-based polymer obtained by alkaline deacetylation of chitin, is non-toxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable. Due to its desired properties, chitosan-based materials are widely considered to fabricate scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. These scaffolds provide characteristic advantages, such as preservation of cellular phenotype, binding and enhancement of bioactive factors, control of gene expression, and synthesis and deposition of tissue-specific extracellular matrix (ECM), to tissue regeneration. Therefore, the scaffolds based on chitosan and its composites have potential to be used in bone, cartilage, liver, nerve, and musculoskeletal tissue engineering.