Tissue engineering has become a medical alternative in this society with an ever-increasing lifespan. Advances in the areas of technology and biomaterials have facilitated the use of engineered constructs for medical issues. This review discusses on-going concerns and the latest developments in a widely employed biomaterial in the field of tissue engineering: gelatin. Emerging techniques including 3D bioprinting and gelatin functionalization have demonstrated better mimicking of native tissue by reinforcing gelatin-based systems, among others. This breakthrough facilitates, on the one hand, the manufacturing process when it comes to practicality and cost-effectiveness, which plays a key role in the transition towards clinical application. On the other hand, it can be concluded that gelatin could be considered as one of the promising biomaterials in future trends, in which the focus might be on the detection and diagnosis of diseases rather than treatment.

Nanoclay‐reinforced biomaterials have sparked a new avenue in advanced healthcare materials that can potentially revolutionize treatment of musculoskeletal defects. Native tissues display many important chemical, mechanical, biological, and physical properties that engineered biomaterials need to mimic for optimal tissue integration and regeneration. However, it is time‐consuming and difficult to endow such combinatorial properties on materials via feasible and nontoxic procedures. Fortunately, a number of nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, MXenes, and nanoclays already display a plethora of material properties that can be transferred to biomaterials through a simple incorporation procedure. In this direction, the members of the nanoclay family are easy to functionalize chemically, they can significantly reinforce the mechanical performance of biomaterials, and can provide bioactive properties by ionic dissolution products to upregulate cartilage and bone tissue formation. For this reason, nanoclays can become a key component for future orthopedic biomaterials. In this review, we specifically focus on the rapidly decreasing gap between clinic and laboratory by highlighting their application in a number of promising in vivo studies.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive joint disease that compromises the structural integrity of cartilage tissue. Conventional treatments based on medication or surgery are nowadays inefficient and cell-based therapy has emerged as one of the most promising methods for cartilage regeneration. The first therapy developed for cartilage defects was autologous chondrocyte implantation, but in the last few decades stem cells (SCs) from different sources have been proposed as a possible alternative for OA. Areas covered: SC sources and available delivery procedures (scaffolds/hydrogels) are presented, along with the main issues arisen in this regard. Thereafter, preclinical and clinical trials performed in recent years are reviewed in order to take a glance toward the potential benefits that such therapies could deliver to the patients. Expert opinion: SCs have proven their potential and safety for OA treatment. Nevertheless, there are still many questions to be resolved before their widespread used in clinical practice, such as the treatment mechanism, the best cell source, the most appropriate processing method, the most effective dose and delivery procedure, and their efficacy. In this sense, long-term follow-up and larger randomized controlled trials utilizing standardized and established outcome scores are mandatory to make objective conclusions.

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