Abstract
Biodegradable polymeric materials of natural significance, including chitosan, collagen, gelatin, silk fibroin, fibrin, and zein among others are of supreme interest to engineer conduits (tubular scaffolds) with unique and tunable structural, physicochemical, and biological properties. The exploitation of polymeric conduits for biomedical purposes, such as tissue engineering has been extensively practiced. However, several demerits, such as non-degradability, host cell-material interactions, poor biocompatibility issues, poor processability and loss of mechanical properties, etc. still pose considerable limitations. In this context, a great deal of attention has been given to naturally occurring biomaterials, e.g., chitosan, collagen, gelatin, silk fibroin, fibrin, and zein, which are more biocompatible, biodegradable, and bio-tunable, thus are excellent candidate materials of biomedical in -terest. Considering the added-value of biodegradable nature, numerous polymeric conduits have been fabricated through using different synthesis strategies. In the present review, different materials, both natural and synthetic, are summarized and discussed by considering the influence of different macromolecular architectures. Following a brief introduction, the review focuses on different methods that have been or being used for fabrication of biodegradable conduits. Furthermore, different biomedical applications of biodegradable conduits have also been highlighted with suitable examples. The last part of the review assists to understand the mechanisms of degradation and tracking of degradation of scaffolds, along with developing trends and current challenges with polymeric conduits are also discussed.