Polysaccharides and Applications in Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine is an interdisciplinary field aiming to restore the function of diseased or damaged tissues by combining cells, bioactive molecules and biomaterial scaffolds. Polysaccharides have gained growing interest over the last years as promising biomaterials for scaffolds fabrication due to their natural origin, resemblance to the extracellular matrix, biocompatibility and non-toxicity. This Chapter presents the range of polysaccharides used in regenerative medicine applications. In the first part of the Chapter we will focus on the physicochemical and biological properties of the most common polysaccharides employed in tissue engineering applications. We will also present the functionalization/modification approaches employed to obtain polysaccharide derivatives with properties that render them particularly attractive for use in scaffold fabrication for tissue regeneration. In the second part, of the Chapter we will discuss the applications of polysaccharide-based materials in the regeneration of bone, cartilage, cardiovascular, neural and skin tissues, as well as in wound healing.