Table 1.
Modern natural and synthetic polymers for BTE.
| Polymer Type | Suitable Composite | Feature | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural polymers | Collagen | collagen/cellulose [24], PCL/collagen [25], collagen/PLGA [26] | Significant component of native ECM, low cytotoxic response, weak mechanical properties, high degradation rate |
| Silk fibroin | silk fibroin/chitosan [27], silk fibroin/PVA, silk fibroin/PLA, silk fibroin/PEO [28] | Sufficient biocompatibility, strong mechanical properties, low degradation, easy to process, no immunogenic response in vivo | |
| Gelatin | chitosan/gelatin [29], gelatin/PEO [30], gelatin/PCL [31], gelatin/silk fibroin [15] | Similar to collagen in structure, relatively high tensile modulus, suitable biocompatibility, highly affordable | |
| Chitosan | silk fibroin/chitosan [27], chitosan/gelatin [29], chitosan/agarose [32,33], chitosan/PVA [34,35], chitosan/PEO [35] | Suitable biocompatibility, strong fibers in combination with PVA, requires toxic acidic agents for electrospinning | |
| Cellulose | collagen/cellulose [24] | Significant biocompatibility, weak mechanical properties, high degradation rate | |
| Synthetic polymers | N6 | N6/PVA [36] | Sufficient biocompatibility, controllable conformation, enhanced wettability resulting in good MC3T3-E1 cell attachment for N6/PVA |
| PCL | PCL/collagen [25], PCL/PLA [37] | Sufficient biocompatibility and biodegradability, highly affordable, increased hydrophobicity resulting in poor cell attachment | |
| PLA | PCL/PLA [37] | Sufficient biocompatibility, improved mechanical properties compare to analogs, low degradation, inflammatory reactions caused by its by-product | |
| PLGA | collagen/PLGA [26] | Sufficient biocompatibility, high degradation rate compared to PLA | |
| PEO | gelatin/PEO [30], silk fibroin/PEO [28], chitosan/PEO [35] | Sufficient biocompatibility, mainly used as additive to improve properties of the artificial ECM | |
| PVA | silk fibroin/PVA [28], chitosan/PVA [34,35], N6/PVA [36] | Suitable biocompatibility, mainly used as additive to improve properties of the artificial ECM, highly affordable, process with various hydrolysis degrees, high degradation rate | |