Opening New Avenues for Bioceramics: Oscillatory Flow Reactors and Upcoming Technologies in Skin-Tissue Engineering

Abstract

An aging population and lifestyle-related practices increase the incidence of chronic diseases and consequently its costs. The increasing requests for efficient chronic wound care constitute an opportunity for the field of regenerative medicine but, at the same time, it represents a challenge due to the need to limit treatment costs. Calcium-based materials have enormous potential for skin applications, as calcium has an established role in the normal homeostasis of wounded skin and serves as a modulator in keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation. On the other hand, several natural biopolymers, as silk proteins are known for their antioxidant and moisturizing properties as well as a mitogenic influence on mammalian cells. In the present work, a cost-effective method using an oscillatory flow reactor to produce a calcium phosphate/sericin composite system with controlled properties is presented, to be applied in skin wound healing and regeneration. Future perspectives for the produced biomaterials are also addressed.