Halloysite clay nanotube in regenerative medicine for tissue and wound healing

The vital necessity of effective treatment at damaged tissue or wound site has resulted in emerging tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Tissue engineering has been introduced as an alternative approach for common available therapeutic strategies in the terms of restoring deformed tissue structure and its functionality via the developing of new bio-scaffold. Designed three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds, alone or in combination with bioactive agents, should be able to stimulate and accelerate the development of engineered tissues and provide proper mechanical support during in-vivo implantation and later regeneration process. To cover it up, a series of new bio-structures with higher mechanical strength were designed through the combination of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) into 3D bio-polymeric networks. HNTs clay mineral with its unique rod-like structure and distinctive chemical surface features, exhibits excellent biocompatibility and biosafety for doping into regenerative scaffolds to enhance their mechanical stiffness and biological performance. In this paper, the ongoing procedures of bone/cartilage tissue engineering and wound healing strategies focusing on the designing of 3D-HNTs bio-composites and their multi-cellular interactions in-vitro and in-vivo preclinical studies are reviewed. Furthermore, the challenges and prospects of 3D-HNTs and HNTs-based functional bio-devices for regenerative medicine are also discussed.