Applications of Carbon Nanotubes and Their Polymer Composites in Regenerative Medicine

Current research suggests that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as biomaterials have immense potential for applications in regenerative medicine. The focus of regenerative medicine is on developing methods that can be applied to create functional tissues, to repair or replace tissues/organs lost due to trauma or diseases. In this respect, the structural and mechanical properties of CNTs make them applicable for use as composites for tissue engineering. CNTs can act as delivery vehicles for drugs and gene therapy and thus are suitable for therapeutics in regenerative medicine. The external carbon sheath of the CNTs can be functionalized for usein targeting, drug delivery, and as imaging agents. Further intrinsic physical properties of carbon nanotubes can be harnessed for therapeutics and imaging applications. The use of carbon nanotubes has been proved as contrasting agent in imaging. This work focuses on the latest developments in applications of carbon nanotubes for regenerative medicine. Carbon nonotubes have been under investigation in the past decade for an array of applications due to their unique and versatile properties. In the field of regenerative medicine, they have shown great promise to improve the properties of tissue engineering scaffolds and perform drug delivery and imaging of engineering tissues. The work is a review of the latest advances.