Engineering tools for stimulating wound healing

Abstract

Wound healing is the complex physiological process of restoring the skin's integrity, structure, and function after damage caused by external conditions. The wound healing cascade may be altered due to the progression of certain diseases, such as diabetes, venous hypertension, or peripheral arterial disease, resulting in non-healing chronic wounds. Chronic wounds can be characterized by a wide variety of pathologies including increased reactive oxygen species, ineffective neutrophil activity, overabundance of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and chronic hypoxia. Medical intervention is crucial to heal chronic wounds. This review explores current research to engineer improved chronic wound treatment devices, dressings, and constructs to facilitate tissue regeneration and wound closure. This review first covers different physical stimulation therapies, then, local therapeutic delivery systems, and finally three-dimensional (bio)printing techniques for the fabrication of skin grafts and wound dressings. Additionally, the review discusses the regulatory process for bringing cutting-edge wound healing technologies to market and highlights currently approved products for wound treatment. At the end, the unmet need and future directions that the field should expand are discussed.