Chitosan-Based Biomaterials: Their Interaction with Natural and Synthetic Materials for Cartilage, Bone, Cardiac, Vascular, and Neural Tissue Engineering

Chitosan is a special material because of its nature as a natural polymer, which has been used for the preparation of safe and biocompatible scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The development of advanced bioscaffolds using bioploymers such as chitosan in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is a fast-growing multidisciplinary field of science and technology to restore defective and damaged organs. A large number of investigations have been carried out, employing chitosan and/or its derivatives, to develop advanced biomaterials to serve as suitable biological platforms for cell therapy and tissue regeneration. This chapter emphasizes various techniques used to produce chitosan-based biomaterials. The main focus is to provide insights into the blend of chitosan with other natural and synthetic polymers and figuring out their applications. Various chitosan-based biomaterials are discussed in terms of their applications for regeneration of multiple types of tissues such as bone, cartilage, cardiac, vascular, and neural tissues.