Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA): applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA): applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. Expert Rev Med Devices. 2019 May 06;: Authors: Elmowafy E, Abdal-Hay A, Skouras A, Tiboni M, Casettari L, Guarino V Abstract INTRODUCTION: The applications of naturally obtained polymers are tremendously increased due to them being biocompatible, biodegradable, environmentally friendly and renewable in nature. Among them, polyhydroxyalkanoates are widely studied and the can be utilized in many areas of human life research such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and other medical applications. Areas Covered: This review provides an overview of the polyhydroxyalkanoates biosynthesis and their possible application in drug delivery in the range of micro- and nano-size. Moreover, the possible applications in tissue engineering are covered considering macro- and micro-porous scaffolds and extracellular matrix analogs Expert Commentary: The majority of synthetic plastics are non-biodegradable so, in the last years, a renewed interest is growing to develop alternative processes to produce biologically derived polymers. Among them, PHAs present good properties such as high immunotolerance, low toxicity, biodegradability, so, they are promisingly using as biomaterials in biomedical applications. PMID: 31058550 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Expert Review of Medical Devices - Category: Medical Devices Tags: Expert Rev Med Devices Source Type: research