Tailoring synthetic polymeric biomaterials towards nerve tissue engineering: a review

• Published in: Artificial cells, nanomedicine, and biotechnology Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 3524 - 3539
• Main Authors: Amani, Hamed, Kazerooni, Hanif, Hassanpoor, Hossein, Akbarzadeh, Abolfazl, Pazoki-Toroudi, Hamidreza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 01.12.2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Animals; Biocompatibility; Biocompatible Materials - chemical synthesis; Biocompatible Materials - chemistry; Biocompatible Materials - pharmacology; Biomaterials; Biomedical engineering; Biomedical materials; Humans; Immunogenicity; Injury prevention; Nerve Tissue - cytology; Nerve Tissue - drug effects; nerve tissue engineering; Nervous system; physiochemical properties; Physiochemistry; Polymers - chemical synthesis; Polymers - chemistry; Polymers - pharmacology; Quality of life; Scaffolds; Side effects; Spinal cord injuries; Surgical implants; Synthetic polymeric biomaterials; Tissue engineering; Tissue Engineering - methods; Traumatic brain injury; Synthetic polymeric biomaterials; nerve tissue engineering; physiochemical properties
• ISSN: 2169-1401; 2169-141X
• DOI: 10.1080/21691401.2019.1639723

The nervous system is known as a crucial part of the body and derangement in this system can cause potentially lethal consequences or serious side effects. Unfortunately, the nervous system is unable to rehabilitate damaged regions following seriously debilitating disorders such as stroke, spinal cord injury and brain trauma which, in turn, lead to the reduction of quality of life for the patient. Major challenges in restoring the damaged nervous system are low regenerative capacity and the complexity of physiology system. Synthetic polymeric biomaterials with outstanding properties such as excellent biocompatibility and non-immunogenicity find a wide range of applications in biomedical fields especially neural implants and nerve tissue engineering scaffolds. Despite these advancements, tailoring polymeric biomaterials for design of a desired scaffold is fundamental issue that needs tremendous attention to promote the therapeutic benefits and minimize adverse effects. This review aims to (i) describe the nervous system and related injuries. Then, (ii) nerve tissue engineering strategies are discussed and (iii) physiochemical properties of synthetic polymeric biomaterials systematically highlighted. Moreover, tailoring synthetic polymeric biomaterials for nerve tissue engineering is reviewed.