A Systematic Review on Electrospun Polymer Nanocomposites Used for Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Trauma, disease and various pathological conditions of bone may lead to the need of bone grafts and their substitutes to the affected patients. Bone grafting is a surgical process that repairs, rebuilds or replaces the lost bone. The main function of bone grafts is to induce osteoconduction, osteoinduction and osteogenesis along with providing the structural support for adherence and proliferation of bone cells at the implanted site. Bone grafts are available in a variety of substances broadly categorized into natural and synthetic grafts. The gold standard is autografts, where the bone from a person’s own body is used for implant. Other than autogenous grafts, allografts, xenografts and various isolated or polymer composites of calcium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate and hydroxyapatite are available. Zeroing in on an ideal bone graft for a specific clinical situation is a surmounting task as all grafts do not have the same properties. Hence, this review presents a deep study on the history of bone developments in the field of tissue engineering. It presents a thorough account on the natural and synthetic biodegradable electrospun polymers used for scaffolding purpose to engineer the bone.