Current Biomaterials for Wound Healing

Abstract

Wound healing is the body's process of injury recovery. Skin healing is divided into four distinct overlapping phases: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. Cell-to-cell interactions mediated by both cytokines and chemokines are imperative for the transition between these phases. Patients can face difficulties in the healing process due to the wound being too large, decreased vascularization, infection, or additional burdens of a systemic illness. The field of tissue engineering has been investigating biomaterials as an alternative for skin regeneration. Biomaterials used for wound healing may be natural, synthetic, or a combination of both. Once a specific biomaterial is selected, it acts as a scaffold for skin regeneration. When the scaffold is applied to a wound, it allows for the upregulation of distinct molecular signaling pathways important for skin repair. Although tissue engineering has made great progress, more research is needed in order to support the use of biomaterials for wound healing for clinical translation.

Keywords: biomaterials; skin repair; wound healing; wound repair.

Figure 1

The stages of wound healing. The stages of wound healing involve an interaction between the extracellular matrix and multiple cell populations, including platelets, fibroblasts, keratinocytes, endothelial cells, and macrophages. Taken with permission from [4].

Figure 2

The use of autografts in wound healing. An autograft may be necessary for burn victims or patients with large wounds. A sheet of skin is harvested from another area of the body on the patient. The harvested skin is processed to create a mesh and placed over the burn or large wound, thus promoting increased wound healing from the keratinocytes within the harvested autograft.

Figure 3

The use of cells in tissue engineering for wound healing. Stem cell seeding, also known as stem cell transplantation from the skin of a donor, involves organizing stem cells into a scaffold and giving them time to proliferate. Once proliferation is complete, the seeded scaffold is placed over the wound. The rapid proliferation of stem cells can then aid in wound healing.

Figure 4

Decellularized technique to make acellular tissue graft. Functional decellularized extracellular matrix used for tissue repair. Taken with permission from [39].