Applications of bacterial-synthesized cellulose in veterinary medicine - a review

Tissue engineering promotes tissue regeneration through biomaterials that have excellent properties and have the potential to replace tissues. Many studies show that bacterial cellulose (BC) might ensure tissue regeneration and substitution, being used for the bioengineering of hard, cartilaginous and soft tissues. Bacterial cellulose is extensively used as wound dressing material and results show that BC is a promising tissue scaffold (bone, cardiovascular, urinary tissue). It can be combined with polymeric and non-polymeric compounds to acquire antimicrobial, cell-adhesion and proliferation properties. To ensure proper tissue regeneration, the material has to be: biocompatible, with minimum tissue reaction and biodegradability; bio-absorbable, to promote tissue development, cellular interaction and grow; resistant to support the weight of the newly formed tissue. Its versatile structure, physical and biochemical properties can be adjusted by adapting the bacteria culturing conditions. The main biomedical applications seem to be as hard (bone, dental), fibrocartilaginous (meniscal) and soft tissue (skin, cardiovascular, urinary) substituents. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge, challenges and future applications of BC and its biomedical potential in veterinary medicine. It was focused on the main uses in regeneration and scaffold tissue replacement and, although BC showed promising results, there is a lack of successful results of BC use in clinical practice. Most studies were performed only at experimental level and further research is needed for BC to enter clinical veterinary practice.