Nanocomposites for Human Body Tissue Repair

Abstract

Over the past thirty years, many researchers around the world have investigated various biomedical composites for human body tissue repair. Biomedical composites have unique properties that other types of biomedical materials (biomedical polymers, bioceramics and implantable metals) cannot offer. The first particulate bioceramic-polymer composite has been used in patients for bone tissue substitution. With the rapid advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology in recent years, biomedical nanocomposites are gaining increasing attention. In particular, biodegradable porous nanocomposites are investigated extensively because they are very useful in the tissue engineering field for the regeneration of human body tissues. In this chapter, the design, manufacture, characterization, and assessment of biomedical nanocomposites are discussed and some of our research on biomedical nanocomposites (non-porous or porous), as well as the selected work conducted by others, are presented. It is clearly shown that nanocomposites have great potential for human body tissue repair.