Severe burn injuries consistently present massive hurdles in regenerative medicine. These traumas go beyond basic tissue loss; they trigger fierce local inflammation and disrupt the body’s natural recovery cascade. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have recently captured the attention of researchers as a potent, cell-free tool to jumpstart tissue repair. In this work, we contrast the therapeutic viability of EVs sourced from mammalian stem cells against those extracted from plants for burn wound management. We combed through PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar to retrieve relevant literature. Search queries targeted the intersection of burns, stem cell EVs, and plant-derived vesicles (PDEVs). We then extracted data focusing on underlying action mechanisms, overall efficacy, and the practical constraints or benefits unique to each vesicle origin. The gathered evidence heavily supports stem cell EVs—especially mesenchymal subtypes—as powerful agents that orchestrate burn repair. They actively blunt inflammatory cascades, drive new blood vessel formation, and push cells to migrate and close the wound boundary. Conversely, PDEVs bring a entirely different set of strengths to the table. Packed with inherent bioactive compounds, they directly combat infection, neutralize oxidative stress, and reduce swelling. Logistically, plant EVs outshine their mammalian counterparts by offering drastically lower manufacturing costs, widespread availability, and superior biosafety profiles. Both vesicle categories demonstrate tremendous clinical potential for burn care. While the biological mechanisms of stem cell EVs are mapped out far more extensively in the current literature, plant EVs are rapidly emerging as a highly scalable, budget-friendly, and safe alternative. Ultimately, turning either of these cell-free platforms into standard, off-the-shelf clinical therapies will require strict manufacturing standardization and rigorous human trials. Burns can cause pain, inflammation, and delayed skin healing, sometimes requiring more complex treatments. This article examines how EVs, which are tiny particles released by cells, can help heal burn wounds. Researchers compared two major sources of these particles: stem cells and plant cells. According to the review, stem cell-derived vesicles, particularly mesenchymal stem cells, can reduce inflammation, promote new blood vessel formation, and accelerate cell growth and migration to close wounds. Plant vesicles, on the other hand, have also shown promising effects, such as reducing inflammation, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties, and have advantages in terms of availability, cost, and safety. Overall, this paper suggests that both types of vesicles can be useful in burn treatment, but the evidence for stem cell vesicles is stronger. At the same time, plant vesicles hold great promise as a cheaper, safer, and scalable alternative.
The increasing demand for eco-friendly and multipurpose bio-based materials, driven by environmental concerns and the younger generation’s preference for sustainability, has brought attention to silk and its derivatives. Silk, a natural fibrous protein produced by insects and other species, is composed of tightly bonded silk proteins, primarily fibroin, which form strong, durable filaments. Silk nanofibrils (SNFs), the nanoscale building blocks of natural silk fibers, exhibit remarkable properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, high mechanical strength, toughness, and elasticity, making them highly suitable for a wide range of biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. These properties enable SNFs to be used effectively in tissue engineering, where they have shown significant potential for regenerating bone, ligament, and vascular tissues. Additionally, SNFs are being explored as controlled drug-release systems, as their structure enables precise regulation of therapeutic agent delivery. The unique characteristics of SNFs can also be tailored using various physicochemical methods, such as chemical modification, blending with other materials, or crosslinking, to meet the specific requirements of different applications. This review examines the various methods for preparing SNFs and their approaches, and explores how their composition, structure, and properties influence their functionality in biomedical contexts. It highlights ongoing SNF research advancing regenerative medicine, tissue repair, and targeted drug delivery systems. This review aims to underscore their growing significance as versatile biomaterials with immense potential in the medical and pharmaceutical industries by providing a comprehensive overview of current SNF research. SNFs offer high strength, elasticity, and biodegradability for medical uses Effective in tissue engineering for bone, ligament, and vascular regeneration Enable controlled drug delivery through tunable structural modifications Properties tailored via chemical modification, blending, and crosslinking Emerging as versatile biomaterials in regenerative medicine and pharmaceutics
Articular cartilage possesses limited intrinsic regenerative capacity owing to its avascular nature, low cellularity, and restricted ability to recruit reparative cells following injury. In recent years, cytokine- and chemokine-functionalized biomaterial scaffolds have emerged as promising strategies for enhancing cartilage regeneration by modulating inflammatory responses, recruiting endogenous stem/progenitor cells, and promoting chondrogenic differentiation. However, the regenerative functions of these signaling molecules are highly dependent on their spatial and temporal presentation within the complex osteochondral microenvironment. This review summarizes the mechanistic roles of cytokines and chemokines in scaffold-based cartilage regeneration, focusing on their involvement in inflammatory regulation, macrophage polarization, endogenous cell homing, and extracellular matrix remodeling. Recent advances in chemokine-mediated recruitment systems, immunomodulatory cytokine scaffolds, and multifunctional bioinstructive platforms are critically discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of immune regulation with progenitor cell recruitment, as well as the emergence of sequential delivery systems, gradient architectures, osteochondral scaffolds, and stimuli-responsive biomaterials capable of coordinating multiple stages of tissue repair. Comparative analysis of current strategies indicates that successful cartilage regeneration depends not on individual bioactive factors alone but on the coordinated orchestration of recruitment, immunomodulation, differentiation, and tissue maturation. Future scaffold platforms are expected to combine spatiotemporal control of biological signals with adaptive material properties to more closely mimic the natural regenerative process. Collectively, cytokine- and chemokine-functionalized scaffolds represent a rapidly evolving class of bioinstructive biomaterials with significant potential for achieving durable hyaline cartilage regeneration and long-term restoration of joint function. Articular cartilage protects joints and enables smooth movement but has a limited ability to heal after injury or disease. Biomaterial scaffolds offer a promising approach to support cartilage regeneration by guiding the body”s natural repair processes.This review explores how cytokines and chemokines, natural signaling molecules that regulate inflammation and cell movement, can be incorporated into scaffolds to improve cartilage repair. These molecules help attract repair cells, control inflammation, and promote new cartilage formation. Recent advances in scaffold design also enable controlled delivery of these signals at specific locations and stages of healing.Although further research is needed to confirm their long-term safety and effectiveness, these strategies hold promise for developing improved cartilage repair treatments and restoring joint function.
3D bioprinting has rapidly expanded the opportunities for fabricating simple, complex, structurally similar biological structures that mimic native tissues. Combined with biomaterials compatible with living cells, the working principle of additive manufacturing in 3D bioprinting is identical, as it closely follows natural tissue architecture, thus showing a significant improvement over traditional methods like regeneration. These treatments can potentially heal multiple tissues, including vascular, dental pulp formation, tooth regeneration, bone healing, neural nerve tract repair, spinal cord tissue reconstitution, and external ear reconstruction/corneal replacement. Aside from its obvious applications as a tissue regeneration tool, 3D bioprinting is widely used in other biomedical research areas, such as drug discovery, which forms advanced local drug delivery systems that can target tissues or cells specifically. The historical developmental timeline in which current bioprinting technologies emerged started with stereolithography and concluded with summarising inkjet, extrusion, laser-assisted printing, microfluidic technology, the HITS-Bio platform, and the Kenzan bioprinting method. A fundamental component of successful bioprinting is the formulation of bioinks, which are hydrogels comprised of biological macromolecules, including proteins (like collagen, gelatin, etc.) and polysaccharides (like alginate, hyaluronic acid, etc.), that include living cells suspended in them. This review also provides valuable insights into critical hurdles that must be overcome to advance the field, such as vascularisation and viable cell survival in thick tissue constructs, and elaborates novel strategies for improving bio-ink formulations or printability. It also highlights the global 3D bioprinting industry and how 3D bioprinting could resolve the restrictions of conventional tissue transplantation. This extensive comprehension aims to provide a high-level overview of the rapidly maturing capabilities in 3D bioprinting for tissue engineering and how they are revolutionising regenerative medicine.
