ABSTRACT
Biomaterials arematerials used to direct, augment, or replace
the function of damaged, diseased, or missing tissues. Gold,
wood, glass, ivory, silk, gems, and tissues from animals have
been recorded throughout much of history for the replace-
ment of teeth, bones, and eyes; to sew blood vessels together;
and to replace cartilage. Table 1 lists a variety of metals/
alloys, polymers, ceramics/glasses, and composites used in
modern biomedical devices such as contact lenses, dialysis
machines, sutures, catheters, pacemakers, stents, dental fill-
ings, artificial hearts, and bone plates. These devices are
often complex containing multiple components and materi-
als. In 1998, the estimated worldwide medical device and
supplies market was valued at more than $145 billion.[1]
The term biomaterial is historically defined as any non-
viable material used in a medical device intended to interact
with biological systems.[2] Non-viable materials may be
natural or synthetic in origin or a combination of both.
Biomaterials are different from biological materials, which
are viablematerials produced by a living system such as skin,
bone, ligaments, wood, exoskeleton, etc. However, new and
creative biomaterial strategies under investigation combine
biomaterials with cells, especially progenitor cells, for ex
vivo or in vivo tissue engineering/regeneration, which may
lead to a revision in the definition of a biomaterial.
