Chitosan as a barrier membrane material in periodontal tissue regeneration

Periodontal regeneration is defined as regeneration of the tooth-supporting tissues including cementum, periodontal ligament, and alveolar bone. Guided tissue regeneration (GTR) has been demonstrated to be an effective technique to achieve periodontal regeneration. In the GTR procedures, various kinds of membranes play important roles. Chitosan, a deacetylated derivative of chitin, is biocompatible, biodegradable, and antimicrobial. It acts as hydrating agent and possesses tissue healing and osteoinducing effect. Chitosan can be easily processed into membranes, gels, nanofibers, beads, nanoparticles, scaffolds, and sponges forms and can be used in drug delivery systems. Here, we review the bioproperties of chitosan and report the progress of application of chitosan as membranes in GTR and guided bone regeneration (GBR), which indicates that chitosan could be a good substrate candidate as the materials for the GTR/GBR membranes. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2012.