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Review
. 2018 Jul 4;10(7):739.
doi: 10.3390/polym10070739.

Recent Overviews in Functional Polymer Composites for Biomedical Applications

Moustafa M Zagho  1 , Essraa A Hussein  2 , Ahmed A Elzatahry  3
Affiliations
Review

Recent Overviews in Functional Polymer Composites for Biomedical Applications

Moustafa M Zagho et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Composite materials are considered as an essential part of our daily life due to their outstanding properties and diverse applications. Polymer composites are a widespread class of composites, characterized by low cost, facile processing methods, and varied applications ranging from daily-use issues to highly complicated electronics and advanced medical combinations. In this review, we focus on the most important fabrication techniques for bioapplied polymer composites such as electrospinning, melt-extrusion, solution mixing, and latex technology, as well as in situ methods. Additionally, significant and recent advances in biomedical applications are spotlighted, such as tissue engineering (including bone, blood vessels, oral tissues, and skin), dental resin-based composites, and wound dressing.

Keywords: biomedical; dental resin-based composites; polymer composites; tissue engineering; wound dressing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Classification of composites (polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polylactic acid (PLA)). Reproduced with permission from [1]. John Wiley and Sons, 2012.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Alginate; (b) HA/alginate; and (c) SF/HA/alginate beads were grafted into rat calvarial defects (silk fibroin (SF) and hydroxyapatite (HA)). Reproduced with permission from [61]. MDPI, 2017.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Proliferation of pig iliac endothelium cells (PIECs) on coverslips, bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) tubes, BNC/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite tubes and PVA tubes at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after cell seeding. Significant variance between groups is shown by asterisks (* p < 0.05). The tubes processed from the first bioreactor which was assembled with an about 60 mm silicone tube (inner diameter × external diameter: 2 × 3 mm) and a glass tube (8 × 10 mm), were defined as S-BNC tubes. The other bioreactor was consisted of two silicone tubes with various calibers (2 × 3 mm, 8 × 9 mm), were defined as D-BNC tubes. Reproduced with permission from [74]. Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Histological measurement of the skin treated with gauze, HSP00, and HSP20 hydrogel at the 13th day by H&E staining: at (A) 50× and (B) 200×. Reproduced with permission from [146]. Elsevier, 2017.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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