Polímeros como biomateriais para o tecido cartilaginoso

Abstract

Traumatic and degenerative injuries of cartilaginous tissue, most times, causes tissue loss with functional and, sometimes, aesthetic impairment. In view that this tissue has poor regenerative capacity, its reparation is finalized with connective fibrous tissue formation. In an attempt to overcome these problems, the tissue engineering researchers have developed different regenerative techniques and biomaterials to regenerate this tissue and, thus, rehabilitate the affected individuals. Therefore, the polymers have been widely used, because they present advantages such as biocompatibility, flexibility, processability, biodegradation, and low cost of fabrication in relation to the other biomaterials. However, they can be produced in a variety of formats and presentation forms as scaffolds, films, fibers, blends, gels, among others. For this reason, these materials have been evaluated in different experiments in vitro and in vivo and they have shown promising results for clinic application. In this context, the objective of the present work is to present the main research findings with the use of polymers as biomaterials for regeneration of cartilaginous tissue.