Despite the many advances in tissue engineering approaches, scientists still face significant challenges in trying to
repair and replace soft tissues. Nature-inspired routes involving the creation of polymer-based systems of natural
origins constitute an interesting alternative route to produce novel materials. The interest in these materials comes
from the possibility of constructing multi-component systems that can be manipulated by composition allowing
one to mimic the tissue environment required for the cellular regeneration of soft tissues. For this purpose, factors
such as the design, choice, and compatibility of the polymers are considered to be key factors for successful
strategies in soft tissue regeneration. More recently, polysaccharide-protein based systems have being increasingly
studied and proposed for the treatment of soft tissues. The characteristics, properties, and compatibility of the
resulting materials investigated in the last 10 years, as well as commercially available matrices or those currently
under investigation are the subject matter of this review.S.S. Silva would like to acknowledge the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for a post doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BD/45307/2008). This work was partially supported by the European-Union-funded FP7 Project: Find and Bind (NMP4-SL-2009-229292) and STREP project HIPPOCRATES (NMP3-CT-2003-505758) and was carried out under the scope of the European NoE EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283)
