Sulfated polysaccharide as biomimetic biopolymers for tissue engineering scaffolds fabrication: Challenges and opportunities

Sulfated polysaccharides play important roles in tissue engineering applications because of their high growth factor preservation ability and their native-like biological features. There are different sulfated polysaccharides based on different repeating units in the carbohydrate backbone, the position of the sulfate group, and the sulfation degree of the polysaccharide. These led to various sulfated polymers with different negative charge densities and resultant structure-property relationships. Since numerous reports are presented related to sulfated polysaccharide applications in tissue engineering, it is crucial to review the role of effective physicochemical and biological parameters in their usage; as well as their structure-property relationships. Within this review, we focused on the effect of naturally occurring and synthetic sulfated polysaccharides in tissue engineering applications reported in the last years, highlighting the challenges of the scaffold fabrication process, the position, and the degree of sulfate on biomedical activity. Additionally, we discussed their use in numerous in vitro and in vivo model systems.