title: Novel chitin and chitosan nanofibers in biomedical applications.
abstract: Chitin and its deacetylated derivative, chitosan, are non-toxic, antibacterial, biodegradable and biocompatible biopolymers. Due to these properties, they are widely used for biomedical applications such as tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery, wound dressings, separation membranes and antibacterial coatings, stent coatings, and sensors. In the recent years, electrospinning has been found to be a novel technique to produce chitin and chitosan nanofibers. These nanofibers find novel applications in biomedical fields due to their high surface area and porosity. This article reviews the recent reports on the preparation, properties and biomedical applications of chitin and chitosan based nanofibers in detail.
authors.affiliation: Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Amrita Vishwa Vidhyapeetham University, Cochin-682 041, India. rjayakumar@aims.amrita.edu
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jayakumar
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prabaharan
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tamura
mesh_terms: D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000379:methods*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002686:Chitin; D048271:Chitosan; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D005374:Filtration; D006801:Humans; D057139:Nanofibers; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D014945:Wound Healing
chemical_list: D002686:Chitin; D048271:Chitosan