An introduction to biomaterials encapsulation

Encapsulation technology involves immobilizing the therapeutic agents and/or cells within a semi-permeable biomaterial that permits the bidirectional diffusion of molecules essential for multiple biomedical applications such as controlled, targeted drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Recently, there have been numerous attempts to design sophisticated encapsulation systems for multiple diseases. Although functional polymeric biomaterials are the most famous family of materials for encapsulation, recent studies showed that the biological elements could also be encapsulated into highly mesoporous glass-ceramic structures. The new generation of these systems can prevent the immune cells and antibodies from destroying the encapsulated molecules and/or cells, regarding them as foreign invaders. This technology is also helpful for cell therapy when the delivery of cells is necessary. This chapter briefly introduces the encapsulation strategy for biomedical applications.