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BookmarkScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2007) — Biotechnology's next high-value product could be microbial cellulose, a form of cellulose produced naturally by bacteria that already has found some successful applications in medicine, according to an article in the current issue of the American Chemical Society's Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal.
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In their review of worldwide research on microbial cellulose, the University of Texas' R. Malcolm Brown Jr. and colleagues in Poland explain that it is chemically identical to the more-familiar plant cellulose, source of paper and other commercial products.
However, cellulose produced by the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum has a unique nanostructure of fibers that make it ideal as a dressing to speed wound healing and for a range of other biomedical applications.
Microbial cellulose already has been used successfully in patients with severe burns, for instance, and as a replacement for small-diameter blood vessels, the scientists point out.
Based on the review, they conclude that microbial cellulose is poised for use in a wide variety of medical devices and consumer products as soon as scientists develop a method to mass produce the material.
