Recent advances in biomaterials.

Biomaterials for medical use have been developed in accordance with progress of the fields of medicine, biochemistry, material science, and pharmaceutics. Advances in the medicine have changed the concept of surgery from the deletion of damage tissue for the preservation of the remaining healthy tissue to the reconstruction or replacement of damaged tissue by promoting regeneration of the natural tissue. All the materials used in medicine should be biocompatible. Conventional materials such as metals, ceramics, and synthetic polymers are usually bioinert and support the structural defects. But recently introduced biomaterials are designed to provide biological functions as much a possible by mimicking natural tissue structures.