Bringing naturally-occurring saturated fatty acids into biomedical research

Abstract

Naturally-occurring saturated fatty acids (NSFAs) have emerged as a class of promising biomaterials due to their low cost, chemical stability, well-defined melting points, large heat of fusion, reversible solid–liquid phase transition, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and inherent antibacterial activity. By virtue of these unique advantages, a plethora of attempts have been made by taking NSFAs as gating materials for controlled release or simply serving as bioactive substances for the manipulation of bacterial/cellular behaviors, which greatly boosts their widespread applications in biomedical research. In this review, we systematically summarize the advances of NSFA-based materials in the biomedical field over the past decade. We begin with an introduction to NSFAs and their physiochemical/biological properties, with an emphasis on the working mechanism for controlled release. We then discuss current approaches for the fabrication of colloidally dispersed NSFA-based materials. Further, we showcase the specific applications of NSFA-based materials in biomedical research, including controlled drug release, targeted drug delivery, cancer therapy, antibacterial treatment, and tissue engineering. Lastly, this review is concluded with a summary and perspectives on future directions.