Applications of natural marine polysaccharide scaffold materials in periodontal tissue regeneration

Scaffold-based periodontal tissue engineering offers a promising strategy for regenerating tissues destroyed by periodontitis, for which conventional treatments fall short. An ideal scaffold must not only possess good biocompatibility to establish a regenerative microenvironment but also address the complex pathological features of periodontitis, including persistent bacterial infection, hyperactive immune-inflammatory responses, and the demand for bone defect repair. Natural marine polysaccharides (such as alginate, carrageenan, fucoidan, chitin and its derivatives, and hyaluronic acid) exhibt excellent biocompatibility and degradability, along with inherent antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and osteogenic properties, making them highly suited to the pathological demands of periodontal regeneration. Although these five classes of materials differ in chemical composition, they all combine intrinsic bioactivity with abundant modifiable sites, making them an ideal platform for constructing multifunctional periodontal regeneration scaffolds. Based on this, this review focuses on the microstructural characteristics and structure-activity relationships of marine polysaccharide, systematically summarizing their applications and research progress in the design of periodontal tissue regeneration scaffolds.