Spidroin-Based Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering: General Approaches and Potential Stem Cell Therapies

Spider silks are increasingly gaining interest for potential use as biomaterials in tissue engineering and biomedical applications. Owing to their facile and versatile processability in native and regenerated forms, they can be easily tuned via chemical synthesis or recombinant technologies to address specific issues required for applications. In the past few decades, native spider silk and recombinant silk materials have been explored for a wide range of applications due to their superior strength, toughness, and elasticity as well as biocompatibility, biodegradation, and nonimmunogenicity. Herein, we present an overview of the recent advances in spider silk protein that fabricate biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Beginning with a brief description of biological and mechanical properties of spidroin-based materials and the cellular regulatory mechanism, this review summarizes various types of spidroin-based biomaterials from genetically engineered spider silks and their prospects for specific biomedical applications (e.g., lung tissue engineering, vascularization, bone and cartilage regeneration, and peripheral nerve repair), and finally, we prospected the development direction and manufacturing technology of building more refined and customized spidroin-based protein scaffolds.

Decellularized human-sized pulmonary scaffolds for lung tissue engineering: a comprehensive review

The ultimate goal of lung bioengineering is to produce transplantable lungs for human beings. Therefore, large-scale studies are of high importance. In this paper, we review the investigations on decellularization and recellularization of human-sized lung scaffolds. First, studies that introduced new ways to enhance the decellularization of large-scale lungs are reviewed, followed by the investigations on the xenogeneic sources of lung scaffolds. Then, decellularization and recellularization of diseased lung scaffolds are discussed to assess their usefulness for tissue engineering applications. Next, the use of stem cells in recellularizing acellular lung scaffolds is reviewed, followed by the case studies on the transplantation of bioengineered lungs. Finally, the remaining challenges are discussed, and future directions are highlighted.

3D printed chitosan/polycaprolactone scaffold for lung tissue engineering: hope to be useful for COVID-19 studies

The aim of this study was to provide a biologically and mechanically suitable 3D printed scaffold using chitosan/polycaprolactone bioink for lung tissue engineering.