Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is naturally produced by several bacterial genera in the form of a hydrogel at the air-medium interface. It is an unbranched polymer comprised of repeated glucose units, which are linked together through β-(1-4) glycosidic linkages and form nanofibrils. These linear glucan chains form highly regular intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds, which stabilize its structure. BNC is an environment-friendly material and possesses unique features such as high mechanical properties, biodegradability, and biocompatibility, owing to its unique nano-size (20-100 nm) fibrous structure. The presence of free hydroxyl (OH) groups on its surface allows its surface modification by different chemical and physical methods to bless it with unique functional properties, thus can find potential applications in medical field such as skin tissue repair materials, artificial blood vessels, intervertebral disc replacement materials, controlled-release drug carrier, injectable embolization agent, electroactive hydrogel, and so on. Furthermore, we are adopting engineered Gluconacetobacter xylinum and utilizing the assembly and arrangement of cellulose fibers to achieve highly specific three-dimensional micro-patterns, which will provide highly sophisticated multi-level tissue engineering scaffolds to induce directed cell adhesion and aggregation for applications in regenerative medicines.

Bacterial nanocellulose-based functional materials for biomedical applications