Collagen blended with natural polymers: Recent advances and trends

Abstract This review provides a report on recent advances in the field of research on the blends of collagen with other natural polymers. Collagen-based materials have attracted significant academic interest but industrial attention is still arising. In recent years, blends of collagen with other polymers have been studied for new materials development. Such materials may exhibit improved properties required in the biomedical field and cosmetic preparations. In the proposed review paper, the structure, preparation, and properties of collagen blends with most common natural polymers, e.g. chitosan, elastin, keratin, silk fibroin, and hyaluronic acid have been discussed and examples of new materials based on such blends have been presented. A comparison of the currently available information in the literature in the field of collagen blends has been shown.