Читать книгу Materials for Biomedical Engineering - Mohamed N. Rahaman - Страница 23

Biomaterials are normally designed to have some desirable combination of properties that depend on the intended application. For example, a biomaterial designed for use in healing a defect in a hard tissue such as bone would most likely have properties that are different from one designed for use in healing a defect in a soft tissue such as cartilage. A biomaterial designed to deliver drugs or molecules to a specific site in the body should be capable of being formed into a particulate form, normally of spherical shape and size less than several tens of microns, which is vastly different from a three‐dimensional (3D) form for healing a bone defect. The biomaterial may also have to degrade at a desirable rate to release drugs or biomolecules in a controllable manner.

The approach to designing biomaterials has seen a radical shift in the last few decades. Biological sciences are now playing a significantly increasing role, while at the same time, materials science and engineering are being used to design improved biomaterials having properties more comparable to those of natural tissues.