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Lack of proper vascularization after skin trauma causes delayed wound healing. This has sparked the development of various tissue engineering strategies to improve vascularization.

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Avian eggs offer a natural and environmentally friendly source of raw materials, and many of their components hold great potential in tissue engineering. An avian egg consists of several beneficial elements: the protective eggshell, the eggshell membrane, the egg white (albumen), and the egg yolk (vitellus). The eggshell is mostly composed of calcium carbonate and has intrinsic biological properties that stimulate bone repair. It is a suitable precursor for the synthesis of hydroxyapatite and calcium phosphate, which are particularly relevant to bone tissue engineering. The eggshell membrane is a thin protein-based layer with a fibrous structure composed of several valuable biopolymers, such as collagen and hyaluronic acid, also found in the human extracellular matrix. As a result, the eggshell membrane has found several applications in skin tissue repair and regeneration. The egg white is a protein-rich material that is under investigation for the design of functional protein-based hydrogel scaffolds. The egg yolk, composed mainly of lipids, also contains diverse essential nutrients (e.g., proteins, minerals, and vitamins) and has potential applications in wound healing and bone tissue engineering. This review summarizes the advantages and status of egg components in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as well as their current limitations and future perspectives.

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According to the intrinsic plasticity of stem cells, controlling their fate is a critical issue in cell‐based therapies. Recently, a growing body of evidence has suggested that substrate stiffness can affect the fate decisions of various stem cells. Epidermal neural crest stem cells as one of the main neural crest cell derivatives hold great promise for cell therapies due to presenting a high level of plasticity. This study was conducted to define the influence of substrate stiffness on the lineage commitment of these cells. Here, four different polyacrylamide hydrogels with elastic modulus in the range of 0.7–30 kPa were synthesized and coated with collagen and stem cells were seeded on them for 24 hr. The obtained data showed that cells can attach faster to hydrogels compared with culture plate and cells on <1 kPa stiffness show more neuronal‐like morphology as they presented several branches and extended longer neurites over time. Moreover, the transcription of actin downregulated on all hydrogels, while the expression of Nestin, Tubulin, and PDGFR‐α increased on all of them and SOX‐10 and doublecortin gene expression were higher only on <1 kPa. Also, it was revealed that soft hydrogels can enhance the expression of glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor, neurotrophin‐3, and vascular endothelial growth factor in these stem cells. On the basis of the results, these cells can respond to the substrate stiffness in the short term culture and soft hydrogels can alter their morphology and gene expression. These findings suggested that employing proper substrate stiffness might result in cells with more natural profiles similar to the nervous system and superior usefulness in therapeutic applications.