Re-evaluating the importance of carbohydrates as regenerative biomaterials

Carbohydrates are the most abundant natural biomaterials in the world. By interacting with cells of a variety of levels, they take part in essential functions of organisms including cellular communication, inflammation, infection development and disease. These carbohydrate–cell interactions occur on a variety of levels through glycoconjugates such as glycolipids, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), glycoproteins and proteoglycans [1–4]. The roles of carbohydrates in biological systems pose them as some of the most sought-after biomaterials. The use of these multifaceted molecules provides the opportunity to tailor desired responses depending on the target application [1–5]. Genomics and proteomics have been oriented to discover the information contained in either the genetic code of different organisms or in the amino acid sequences of proteins, respectively. However, the area of glycomics is still very new, with its goal to achieve the level of understanding with glycans, as with other natural molecules [4, 6, 7]. In particular, glycomics researchers hypothesize that the capabilities of polysaccharides to store biological information is more extensive than other molecules, due to the varied glycosidic bonds and interactions between saccharides, as well as the different conformational structures that they can adopt [1, 3, 4, 7]. Elucidation of the complex interactions between specific polysaccharide sequences and other biomolecules is one of the main goals of glycomics [2]. This information would be extremely valuable for the design of novel solutions to biological and chemical challenges. Advances in glycomics research would be of great advantage to the biochemical, medical and materials science fields. Understanding the functions of polysaccharides in cell–cell interactions, inflammation signaling and the progression of different diseases will enable the rational-design of biomaterial platforms, targeting molecules or treatments [8]. Moreover, the potential applications of this knowledge in drug delivery and tissue engineering are innumerable. Therefore, this perspective will discuss some of the current applications of polysaccharides in these fields and discuss new frontiers in polysaccharide biomaterials research.