ORCID

Abstract

Immune engineering is a vast and rapidly developing field with a strong focus on polymeric materials. The importance of these biomaterials in immune engineering revolves around their ability to provide bioactive molecules to the target site, which influences the immune system. Their functional performance depends on various structural and functional properties of the biomaterial, which are also influenced by the host immune microenvironment. This work focuses on the current state of the art, the attributes of polymer-based biomaterials, and their limitations in immune engineering applications. This review not only elaborates on the advantages of polymeric biomaterials in immune engineering but also critically analyses the potential of these biomaterials in this field. The current work begins with the identification of key characteristics of polymer-based biomaterials for immune engineering, then explores different aspects of various polymeric materials and their importance in immune engineering applications. One of the key advantages of polymeric materials is that they can be efficiently designed to deliver bioactive molecules that significantly influence the host immune system. On the other hand, a notable limitation of these materials involves the development of adverse immune responses that can often occur due to the incompatibility of polymeric biomaterials with the host immune system. Finally, the review delves into the future perspectives and potential of these materials in immune engineering based personalized medicine and/or engineering living material (ELM) specific applications.

Keywords

biomaterials, immune engineering, macrophage, polymers

Publication Date

2026-01-01

Publication Title

Journal of Biomaterials Applications

Volume

41

Issue

2

ISSN

0885-3282

First Page

161

Last Page

177

Deposit Date

2026-02-03

Funding

Authors extend gratitude towards assistant prof. Katerina Kavaldzhieva, PhD, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria for her assistance to prepare figures in the manuscript. P.B. acknowledges Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship [July 2023-June 2025; Grant agreement ID: 101108847] and Medtrain + Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship [July 2025 onwards; Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Grant Agreement No 101081457 and CÚRAM Grant Reference 13/RC/2073_P2]. BA. L acknowledges the financed project No. BG-RRP-2.004-0008 and project No. BG16RFPR002-1.014-0014-C01 “Development Program with a Business Plan for the Laboratory Complex of Sofia Tech Park,” which is implemented under the “Research, Innovation and Digitalization for Smart Transformation” Program, co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund. P.B. also extends a sincere thanks to Department of Biomaterials, Institute of Clinical Dentistry, University of Oslo, Norway for their kind support. P.B. also extends sincere thanks to Assoc. Prof. Hanna Tiainen (UiO), Dr Claire Brougham (TU Dublin), Prof. Fergal J. O’Brien (RCSI), Prof. Abhay Pandit (CÚRAM), Dr Tapas Mitra, (CÚRAM) for kind encouragement.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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