Biomaterials as carrier, barrier and reactor for cell-based regenerative medicine

Cell therapy has achieved tremendous success in regenerative medicine in the past several decades. However, challenges such as cell loss, death and immune-rejection after transplantation still persist. Biomaterials have been designed as carriers to deliver cells to desirable region for local tissue regeneration; as barriers to protect transplanted cells from host immune attack; or as reactors to stimulate host cell recruitment, homing and differentiation. With the assistance of biomaterials, improvement in treatment efficiency has been demonstrated in numerous animal models of degenerative diseases compared with routine free cell-based therapy. Emerging clinical applications of biomaterial assisted cell therapies further highlight their great promise in regenerative therapy and even cure for complex diseases, which have been failed to realize by conventional therapeutic approaches.