Chitosan-based formulation for bone health: A review

Bone health may be impacted by various causes such as dietary deficiencies and metabolic disturbances. The possible use of chitosan (CTS) has also been investigated in improving bone health due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity. This review aims to study the role of CTS formulation for maintaining bone health including treating bone-related diseases, particularly osteoporosis. The literature was extracted from three databases (PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect) from the year 2011 to 2021 using the Medical subject heading (MeSH) terms "osteoporosis" crossed with the term "chitosan". Several formulations of CTS have been implemented in helping bone-related diseases such as nanocomposite, hydrogel and scaffolds. A nanocomposite chitosan formulation successfully increased the femur bone's calcification intensity in a study on adult female rats. CTS-based hydrogel has been found to convey mechanical strength similar to the vertebral bone and possess inherent osteoconductive properties. In conclusion, CTS has shown great potential to be used alone or in combination with other materials in treating bone-related diseases. CTS is also extensively investigated for its benefit as a formulation for various applications due to its good biocompatibility and biodegradability.