Abstract
The current trend in biomaterial development is moving toward the use of degradable materials that have extended functionalities and advantages in the fields of tissue engineering and drug delivery. These functionalities are not only realized by metal-based materials but more and more by specific and tailor-made polymer-based coatings. The great advantage of those systems is their flexibility in mechanical properties, degradation behavior, physicochemical functionalities, and their potential to realize influencing and activating specific phenotype characteristics of cells and tissues. The latter opens a huge area for the progress in new therapeutic strategies such as induced autoregeneration and personalized medicine. Furthermore, multifunctionality of the materials will combine cell and tissue specific properties with specific drug delivery concepts and diagnostic methods. Therefore, an interdisciplinary knowledge-based scientific approach has to be realized to benefit from this potential. Useful polymer systems, as well as examples of most important parameters and degradation characteristics, will be discussed and completed by actual applications and future perspectives.
