A review of chitosan and its derivatives in bone tissue engineering

Critical-sized bone defects treated with biomaterials offer an efficient alternative to traditional methods involving surgical reconstruction, allografts, and metal implants. Chitosan, a natural biopolymer is widely studied for bone regeneration applications owing to its tunable chemical and biological properties. However, the potential of chitosan to repair bone defects is limited due to its water insolubility, faster in vivo depolymerization, hemo-incompatibility, and weak antimicrobial property. Functionalization of chitosan structure through various chemical modifications provides a solution to these limitations. In this review, current trends of using chitosan as a composite with other polymers and ceramics, and its modifications such as quaternization, carboxyalkylation, hydroxylation, phosphorylation, sulfation and copolymerization in bone tissue engineering are elaborated.