Biomaterials: An Alternative to Natural Materials Are Proven Game Changers and Life Saviors
Engineered Substances that interact with complex biological systems.
Biomaterials are natural, synthetic or engineered materials utilized/created to interact with biological systems, without causing allergic reactions. These are product of interaction between Physical, Chemical, Biological Sciences and Engineering. Biomaterials: An Alternative to Natural Materials are proven game changers when we consider their role in human biological systems in medical sciences.
Biomaterial Science is an interesting branch of study
Biomaterials Science/Engineering is about 50 years old and has therapeutic and diagnostic usage in medical history. It encompasses the knowledge and study of interaction between living and non-living man-made materials when placed inside body for treatment purposes.
Biomaterials are used for treatment, repair, augmentation and replacing a tissue or an organ to make it functional inside the body system.
We are familiar with Medical and Dental Implants, Heart Valves, Heart Stents, Grafts , Knee and Hip replacements and other Joints, artificial limbs and other orthopedic prosthetics, Skin, Ligaments , Tendons and other cosmetic augmentations.
These miracles are made possible in medical history, due to extensive research and trials on various Biomaterials, used in tissue and organ replacement therapies.
What are Biomaterials?
Biomaterials are either synthetic or natural materials intended to interact within live human tissues without generating any negative/ allergic reactions and unwanted episodes.
Biomaterials are used to treat , enhance, replace or repair body systems in case where natural cells and tissues stop working. Non working cells, tissues and organs are replaced by similar look and feel materials which imitate natural issue and take up the function in long run .
Biomaterials are supposed to be antiallergenic and biocompatible to human body and should not trigger any episode of rashes, allergic reactions and untoward, unfortunate results!
Example of Biomaterials
Certain Metals, their Alloys, Ceramic, Glass, Polymers, Resins are some example of Biomaterials.
These Biomaterials are used to create following life saving and cosmetic purpose medical devices used for treatment :
1. Contact lenses,
2. Heart valves,
3. Pacemakers,
4. Heart Stents
5. Limb prosthetics,
6. Orthopedic devices,
7. Cardiovascular devices,
8. The Ti-Ni Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) in bone plates,
9. Bioresorbable sutures,
10. Devices to activate nerves,
11. Scaffolding materials to imitate body organs,
12. Tissue engineering,
13. Drug delivery systems,
14. Gene vectors,
15. Bio nanotechnology materials
These Biomaterials with different level of Biocompatibility are utilized for treatment and biomedical usage.
Classification of Biomaterials
Biomaterials should be biocompatible as it should not trigger or fire any negative response from the human body, when placed in close proximity with cells, tissues and organs of the body. Also it should be non toxic and non carcinogenic(anti cancerous).
There are following three types of biomaterials biomaterials may be classified depending upon their biocompatibility factor:
- Bioinert Biomaterial : Such biomaterial which does not elicit negative response from the host body. Biomaterial should be such that it should not be identified by body as foreign material otherwise body will destroy that device when placed in body considering as foreign material and triggering immune response. Example: Bioinert Ceramics used in bone replacement (when implanted in bone is incorporated naturally: contact osteogenesis)
- Bioresorbable Biomaterial : Also called as biodegradable or naturally absorbing. Example : as used in BioResorbable Stents (BRS) in heart, wound stitches and bone graft. Certain magnesium- based and iron- based alloy stents degrade naturally and safely in body. Zinc based alloys are also under research and investigation.
- Bioactive Biomaterial : This Bioactive biomaterial elicits chemical reaction and forms bond with the living tissue matter when placed inside body. Example: Bioactive material help restore damaged tooth structure . Certain glass and glass-ceramic material are found to be bioactive.
Research and Development in field of Tissue Engineering, Materials Science, Mining and Metallurgy and Biomedical Sciences ,discovery and innovation of novel biomaterials, have led to tremendous growth in field of Biomaterial Science.
Use of Biomaterials in Joint replacement, Heart valve replacement, Bone and Tooth replacement, Contact lenses, Body organ augmentation and drug delivery systems and so on, has made Biomaterials an alternative to natural materials and these definitely are proven game changers and life saviors!!Shikha Saxena
A Technical Writer, an artist and blogger by choice. Passionate about reading , writing and editing. http://www.shikhasaxena.com and https://www.dnabox.co/
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