Polyhydroxyalkanoates: Medical Applications and Potential for Use in Dentistry

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising biopolymers as an alternative to traditional synthetic polymers due to their biodegradability and biocompatibility. The PHA market is blooming in response to the growing demand for biodegradable and environmentally friendly plastics. These biopolyesters are produced and degraded by a variety of microorganisms, making them environmentally friendly, while offering benefits such as biocompatibility (when adequately processed) and biodegradability. Their versatility extends to various areas, from biomedicine to agriculture and composite materials, where they pave the way for significative innovations. In the field of regenerative medicine, some PHAs have key applications, namely in vascular grafts, oral tissue regeneration, and development of self-healing polymers. In addition, PHAs have the potential to be used in the creation of dental implant materials and dental medical devices. PHAs can also be used to encapsulate hydrophobic drugs, providing an approach for more targeted and effective treatments. To summarize, PHAs open new perspectives in the field of medicine by improving drug delivery and offering ecologically biocompatible solutions for medical devices. The aim of this review is to present the medical and dental applications of PHA, their advantages, disadvantages, and indications.

Keywords: P(4HB); biocompatible polymers; biomimetic; polyhydroxyalkanoate; tissue-engineered substitutes.

Figure 1

Number of documents found in Scholar Google (dark blue) and Scopus (orange) databases using “dentistry” and “polyhydroxyalkanoate” for the search in “all fields” [4,5].

Figure 2

General chemical structure of polyhydroxyalkanoates. The “n” represents the number of monomers in the polymeric chain, and “m” depends on the number of carbons in each monomer.

Figure 3

Biomaterial scaffold made from P(HB-50HV) for periodontal tissue engineering adapted from [137].