Emerging and innovative approaches for wound healing and skin regeneration: Current status and advances

Abstract

Current advances in skin tissue engineering and wound healing augur well for the development of split or full thickness skin substitutes to recapitulating the native functional skin. These engineered skin substitutes have fared successfully in recent years with exploration of various emerging technologies. As a result, recent clinical practice has been highly evolved incorporating various engineered skin substitutes as an adjunct to accelerate healing and improvement of quality of life in long-term. This review seeks to bring the researchers through various emerging and innovative approaches being developed and utilized for accelerating wound healing and skin regeneration. In order to attempt this, we reviewed various design considerations for skin repair and impact of several smart technologies viz., in situ 3D printing, portable bioprinters, electrosprayers and in situ forming hydrogels that have significantly improved wound healing and skin therapeutics. Furthermore, numerous cellular therapies such as effect of immunomodulation, stromal vascular fraction treatments, micro RNA (miRNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) based skin therapeutics have been thoroughly discussed. Finally, an update of clinical trials along with critical analysis of properties and benefits of different emerging technologies in healing certain types of wounds, prime challenges and future prospects in skin tissue engineering are discussed.

Keywords: 3D bioprinting; Immunomodulation; Skin regeneration; Tissue engineering; Vascularization; Wound healing.