Recent Advances in Natural Biomacromolecule Derived Biomaterials for Soft Tissue Engineering

The application of biomaterials has become a cornerstone strategy in tissue engineering, offering viable solutions for restoring tissues compromised by injury or disease. Unlike fully synthetic polymer-based systems, those constructed from natural biomacromolecules exhibit notable superiorities, including excellent biocompatibility, attenuated immune responses, structural resemblance to native tissue matrices, and favorable degradation behavior. To enhance their therapeutic performance, these macromolecular systems are amenable to various engineering strategies—such as covalent crosslinking, chemical functionalization, and decellularization—enabling their physicochemical profiles to be precisely tailored for specific regenerative purposes. In this context, investigating naturally sourced biomaterial platforms and evaluating their capacity to reconstruct injured soft tissues, facilitate functional recovery, and suppress inflammation-associated deterioration holds considerable scientific and clinical value. A representative example is the management of chemotherapy-related oral mucosal injury, where materials must not only mechanically bridge tissue voids but also actively attenuate oxidative stress and maintain stable adhesion under moist physiological conditions.This Research Topic invites both original research and review contributions documenting emerging advances in natural biomacromolecule-derived materials and their deployment within soft tissue engineering. Priority is given to works presenting novel approaches capable of concurrently rebuilding soft tissue architecture and rebalancing the local inflammatory environment. Contributions spanning foundational material processing through to sophisticated platforms endowed with both anti-inflammatory and tissue-reparative capacities are particularly welcome, with the ultimate aim of enabling comprehensive tissue rehabilitation and enhancing patient outcomes. Relevant submissions may address, but are not restricted to, the following themes:1. Strategies for decellularizing native extracellular matrices or processing biomacromolecular sources, and their translational utility in soft tissue repair.2. Therapeutic deployment of natural biomacromolecule-derived constructs for addressing soft tissue deficiencies and controlling inflammation-related pathological conditions.3. How chemical engineering and surface functionalization reshape the structural characteristics, biological activity, and combined anti-inflammatory/regenerative functions of natural biomacromolecules.4. Biological and mechanical crosstalk between naturally derived biomaterial systems and diverse categories of soft tissue.5. The role of intrinsic physicochemical attributes of natural biomacromolecule-derived biomaterials in coordinating tissue regenerative responses with inflammatory microenvironment remodeling.6. Emerging developments and prospective directions for naturally derived biomaterials in complex soft tissue repair: from bench-scale innovation to clinical translation. Topic editors: Zhaoqiang Zhang, Guangtao Yu, Jorge Padrão Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81220/recent-advances-in-natural-biomacromolecule-derived-biomaterials-for-soft-tissue-engineering