ABSTRACT
Tissue engineering is a branch of science that studies the possibility of repairing organs and tissues of the human body, such as muscles, bones, cartilage, and skin, damaged by a disease, accident, or aging, restoring its integrity and functionality without resorting to transplants or prostheses, thus ensuring a better quality of life for patients. To achieve this, it is necessary to integrate biological components, such as cells and growth factors, with biomaterials. In particular, implants made up of living cells are designed to proliferate on biocompatible and bioabsorbable materials. Among these, materials of natural origin are more interesting because they are characterized by several very important properties to create a favorable microenvironment for the healing process. This chapter fits into this context and aims to describe the polysaccharides- and protein-based biomaterials particularly useful for tissue engineering and their major applications.
