Application of chitosan and its derivatives in nerve tissue engineering

Chitosan (CS) is known as a polysaccharide with positive charge and good biocompatibility.Researches showed that CS possesses the advantages of nontoxicity,biodegradability,plasticity and good biocompatibility,and therefore it can be used to repair of neural injury and serve as a biological carrier scaffold in engineered nerve tissue.Recently,the research is performed for the modification of CS structure or mix the CS with different materials to prepare the multiple compound and biological vector to offer three-dimensional scaffold and environment for the reconstruction of defective neural tissue and culture of neural stem cells.In addition,CS engineered biological materials are confirmed to possess the better performance,more diverse functions and more dominant effect on the regeneration of neural tissue,so it is predicted a more extensive application prospect in neural repair and regeneration.The basic properties and biological functions of CS,and its application in neural tissue engineering are reviewed. Key words: Chitosan;  Derivative;  Nerve tissue engineering;  Biological material