Carbon dots in tissue repair: from cell behavior to microenvironment remodeling

Tissue repair is essential for restoring structural integrity and function after injury. Carbon dots (CDs) have garnered considerable interest in biomedicine due to their high specific surface area, excellent water solubility, biocompatibility, and facile doping and surface functionalization. Within biological systems, CDs facilitate tissue repair through multifaceted mechanisms: they restore cellular functions by enhancing migration, proliferation, and differentiation while suppressing senescence and apoptosis; simultaneously, they modulate the injured microenvironment via antioxidant and immunoregulatory effects. Despite growing research, a comprehensive review detailing the roles of CDs in tissue repair remains unavailable. This review addresses this gap by systematically summarizing CDs' applications across various tissue types and elucidating their underlying mechanisms. Additionally, it critiques current research limitations and provides future perspectives, offering both theoretical insights and practical guidance for advancing CDs-based repair materials.