ABSTRACT
In the world of bioengineering tissues, the uses of fibers as biomaterials have come a long way due to their various advantages, including their robustness, degradation, and the inherent ability to mimic extracellular matrix architecture in three dimensions. On the basis of their origin, fibers can be broadly divided into two groups: natural polymer fibers and synthetic polymer fibers. Natural materials include collagen, silk, cellulose, and fibrinogen, while biodegradable or resorbable synthetic materials include degradable polyesters such as polylactide and polyglycolide as biomaterials. The safety aspects of fiber related to its biological characteristics such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, and antigenicity are of immense importance for its use in biomedical applications. Noteworthy biomedical applications of natural fibers include
reconstruction of drug delivery systems, dressings for burns/ wounds, delivery of bioactive molecules, sustained drug delivery, and as base substrates or scaffolds for tissue engineering and cell culture systems. In tissue engineering, natural fibers have been widely used for reconstruction of bone substitutes, repair of tendons and ligaments, replacement of skin, and artificial engineering of blood vessels and valves. Further, superabsorbent fibers have been developed from acrylic copolymers that absorb up to 50 times their own weight in water. They are used in dressings for wounds that release a large volume of exudates. Resorbable fibers (polylactic acid and polyglycolic acid and their copolymers) are specially developed to retain their mechanical properties in vivo for a specified period. Others include copolymers of polycaprolactone and polydioxanone. These materials are specifically designed to function for a predetermined period of weeks to months before they degrade. In this chapter, we look into various categories of these natural and synthetic fibers for widespread application as biomaterials. Their specific fabrication methods, processing, testing, evaluation, advantages, and disadvantages are thoroughly described.
