Wound healing and its medical complications present a huge burden to health
care worldwide. Current tissue engineering materials are far from satisfactory in
meeting desirable safety and efficacy. Due to the intricate three-dimensional
nanostructure, flexibility in shape design and multifunctional surface modification,
advanced nanomaterials offer new hopes for revolutionising modern medicine. The
potential of their applications in medical research and clinical practice include
diagnosis, treatment, imaging and tissue regeneration. This chapter reviews the progress
made in the application of nanomaterials in skin tissue engineering in the last decade. It
mainly focuses on materials of biological origins that are biodegradable, non-toxic, and
biocompatible with cells at target sites. The characteristics of novel biofunctional
scaffolds, safety and future trend of nanomaterial application in tissue engineering are
also discussed, aiming to promote continuous research effort in developing scaffold
materials for optimisation of skin regeneration.
Keywords: Nanomaterial, scaffold, skin, tissue engineering, wound regeneration.
