Poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate)s: Diversification and biomedical applications A state of the art review

Biomaterials have played an important role in the treatment of disease and the improvement of health care. Synthetic and naturally occurring biodegradable and biocompatible polymers have been used as biomaterials. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising materials for biomedical applications because they are biodegradable, non-toxic and biocompatible. We will shortly summarize the modification reactions, which include functionalization and grafting reactions, to improve the mechanical, thermal and hydrophilic properties of PHAs. The use of the modified PHAs in numerous biomedical applications, such as sutures, cardiovascular patches, wound dressings, scaffolds in tissue engineering, tissue repair/regeneration devices, drug carriers will be discussed in this review. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.