Bioactive scaffolds based on elastin-like materials for wound healing

Abstract

Wound healing is a complex process that, in healthy tissues, starts immediately after the injury. Even though it is a natural well-orchestrated process, large trauma wounds, or injuries caused by acids or other chemicals, usually produce a non-elastic deformed tissue that not only have biological reduced properties but a clear aesthetic effect. One of the main drawbacks of the scaffolds used for wound dressing is the lack of elasticity, driving to non-elastic and contracted tissues. In the last decades, elastin based materials have gained in importance as biomaterials for tissue engineering applications due to their good cyto- and bio-compatibility, their ease handling and design, production and modification. Synthetic elastin or elastin like-peptides (ELPs) are the two main families of biomaterials that try to mimic the outstanding properties of natural elastin, elasticity amongst others; although there are no in vivo studies that clearly support that these two families of elastin based materials improve the elasticity of the artificial scaffolds and of the regenerated skin. Within the next pages a review of the different forms (coacervates, fibres, hydrogels and biofunctionalized surfaces) in which these two families of biomaterials can be processed to be applied in the wound healing field have been done. Here, we explore the mechanical and biological properties of these scaffolds as well as the different in vivo approaches in which these scaffolds have been used.

Proteins and Peptides as Important Modifiers of the Polymer Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering Applications—A Review

“…Elastin is a fibrous ECM protein that is composed of single tropoelastin subunits. The main role of elastin is to provide elasticity and resilient to many connective tissues [40,70,71]. Its elasticity is coded by a repeating amino acids sequence-VPGVP, where V, P, and G are valine, proline, and glycine, respectively.…”

“…For this reason, artificial forms of elastin, i.e., synthetic tropoelastin, α-elastin, elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), and elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs), have been developed. Thanks to their high elasticity, water-solubility, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, they currently constitute good alternatives for elastin [14,15,38,40,70].…”

Trends in the design and use of elastin-like recombinamers as biomaterials

“…Although several elastin-based materials, composed of tropoelastin or α-elastin, among other versions of elastin, have been designed for wound healing applications, not so many ELRs have been postulated in this regard [24]. Recently, our group obtained oriented electrospun clickable ELR fibers, which have proven good cytocompatibility with fibroblasts and keratinocytes in vitro, suggesting their potential application in the formation of artificial skin or to promote skin regeneration [111].…”

“…Furthermore, we will comment the diverse applications inferred from the control of their ordered-disordered state. Moreover, while several publications have already reviewed the use of ELRs in drug delivery [20,21] and in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) [1,[22][23][24], herein we will point out the major advances in the multi-purpose design and use of ELRs in these fields in the past few years. Finally, we will describe other designs and applications that do not completely fit into the aforementioned sections.…”

Wound healing and scar wars

“…This special issue provides insights into some of the molecular mechanisms inherent to wound healing and fibrosis [13][14][15][16] and highlighting the use of cell-and tissue-models for basic research and drug discovery [17,18]. The use of several approaches for treating or preventing such pathologies is also discussed, including bioactive [19][20][21], electroactive [22] and stimuli-responsive [23] biomaterialbased approaches; gene, drug, proteoglycan and growth factor based approaches [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]; cellular and cellular-derived based therapies [35][36][37]; and matrix modulation strategies [38]. Considering the significant strides made in understanding the molecular mechanisms operating in normal and pathological wound healing and the promising therapeutic approaches described herein, it is expected that in the near future, some of these technologies will satisfy clinical needs and enter commercialisation.…”