Therapeutic Applications of Extracellular Matrix.

Chronic and hard-to-heal wounds are a tremendous burden on our healthcare system and impair the quality of life for millions of people. An emerging focus of regenerative medicine is the development of natural biomaterials that can stimulate tissue formation or repair by recreating the functional and structural properties of proteins and polysaccharides found within the extracellular matrix (ECM). Promising new developments include the fabrication of novel ECM-based biologics to selectively deliver drugs or growth factors to wounds; new classes of bioactive tissue sealants, scaffolds, and hydrogels; as well as inductive wound dressings derived from decellularized tissues. The advances highlighted in this forum issue provide an exciting glimpse into the growing potential of ECM-based wound therapeutics.