Designing Biopolymer Microthreads for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Native tissue structures possess elaborate extracellular matrix (ECM) architectures that inspire the design of fibrous structures in the field of regenerative medicine. We review the literature with respect to the successes and failures, as well as the future promise of biopolymer microthreads as scaffolds to promote endogenous and exogenous tissue regeneration. Biomimetic microthread tissue constructs have been proposed for the functional regeneration of tendon, ligament, skeletal muscle, and ventricular myocardial tissues. To date, biopolymer microthreads have demonstrated promising results as materials to recapitulate the hierarchical structure of simple and complex tissues and well as biochemical signaling cues to direct cell-mediated tissue regeneration. Biopolymer microthreads have also demonstrated exciting potential as a platform technology for the targeted delivery of stem cells and therapeutic molecules. Future studies will focus on the design of microthread-based tissue analogs that strategically integrate growth factors and progenitor cells to temporally direct cell-mediated processes that promote enhanced functional tissue regeneration.