Bacterial Nanocellulose as a Renewable Material for Biomedical Applications

Nanocellulose, such as that produced by the bacteria Gluconacetobacter xylinus (bacterial cellulose, BC), is an emerging biomaterial with great potential as a biological implant, wound and burn dressing material, and scaffolds for tissue regeneration. BC has remarkable mechanical properties despite the fact that it contains up to 99% water. The water-holding ability is the most probable reason why BC implants do not elicit any foreign body reaction. Moreover, the nanostructure and morphological similarities with collagen make BC attractive for cell immobilization and cell support. The architecture of BC materials can be engineered over length scales ranging from nano to macro by controlling the biofabrication process. This article describes current and future applications of BC in the biomedical field.