Novel Promises of Nanotechnology for Tissue Regeneration

The term ‘nanotechnology’ refers to technology that deals with structures and devices of nanometer (10 – 9 meter) size. It involves the design, fabrication and utilization of materials of nanoscale dimensions (Gao & Xu, 2009). The resulting nanomaterials exhibit chemical, physical and biological properties that can differ significantly from those of bulk material. These products can be categorized into metals, ceramics, polymers or composite materials that have nanoscale features. The limited size of their particles leads to a high surface area to volume ratio, improved solubility, multifunctionality, high electrical and heat conductivity and improved surface catalytic activity. (El-Sadik et al., 2010). All these phenomena allow give nanoparticles to interact with biological systems at cellular and molecular levels. These interactions enhance the biomedical applications of nanotechnology giving great promise for improving disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and in particular tissue regeneration (Murthy, 2007).