Polysaccharide-Based Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering: A Review

In addition to proteins and nucleic acids, polysaccharides are an important type of biomacromolecule widely distributed in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Polysaccharides are considered as promising biomaterials due to their significant bioactivities, natural abundance, immunoactivity, and chemical modifiability for tissue engineering (TE) applications. Due to the similarities of the biochemical properties of polysaccharides and the extracellular matrix of human bodies, polysaccharides are increasingly recognized and accepted. Furthermore, the degradation behavior of these macromolecules is generally nontoxic. Certain delicate properties, such as remarkable mechanical properties and tunable tissue response, can be obtained by modifying the functional groups on the surface of polysaccharide molecules. The applications of polysaccharide-based biomaterials in the TE field have been growing intensively in recent decades, for example, bone/cartilage regeneration, cardiac regeneration, neural regeneration, and skin regeneration. This review summarizes the main essential properties of polysaccharides, including their chemical properties, crosslinking mechanisms, and biological properties, and focuses on the association between their structures and properties. The recent progress in polysaccharide-based biomaterials in various TE applications is reviewed, and the prospects for future studies are addressed as well. We intend this review to offer a comprehensive understanding of and inspiration for the research and development of polysaccharide-based materials in TE. Impact statement Polysaccharides are promising biomaterials due to their significant bioactivities, natural abundance, immunoactivity, and chemical modifiability for tissue engineering (TE) applications. As an important natural macromolecule, polysaccharide has attracted much attention both in academia and industry for several biomedical applications. Compared with synthetic materials, polysaccharides have unique biological properties; it is self-evident that polysaccharides will always be the research hotspot in fabricating various biomaterials for different TE. However, most researches about polysaccharides-based materials are still far from practical treatment. This review summarizes the main essential properties of polysaccharides, providing the basic information about chemical properties, crosslinking mechanisms, and biological properties. Recent researches about design and fabrication of polysaccharides-based materials are summarized.