Biomaterials in epithelial tissue engineering: A review

This work presents a review of most used biomaterials in the field of tissue engineering with applications to epithelial tissue. The analysis has reviewed fifty different scientific articles published from 1997 to 2012. The information is classified according to the type as natural or synthetic biomaterials in epithelial tissue engineering, and according to its application as dermal, epidermal, or dermal-epidermal substitutes. The advantages and disadvantages of its implementation as in vitro or clinical applications are highlighted. As a result, natural materials are suitable in terms of biocompatibility with the receiver at the time of graft, but they have low mechanical resistance. Moreover, synthetic materials have shown high mechanical resistance but remain under investigation to develop more biocompatible products and easy removal processes. Within the study, it was found as a very promising area the use of nanomaterials and scaffold techniques for creating structures that support the tissue engineering.