Self pumping biomaterials for wound healing and skin regeneration: A systematic review

Background: Wound healing is one of the most important medical issues occurring due to the injuries or diseases. Various wound dressings with advanced physio-mechanical properties have beenfabricated for this purpose. Amongthese biomaterials, self-pumping structures with their capability of exudates draining from wounds and promote skin repair by stimulating cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the regeneration process so these dressings have attracted attentions in recent decades.

Materials and Methods: We accomplished this systematic review study usingdatabases including Google scholar, Scopus, and PubMed. Studies published between 2022 and 2025 were included, focusing on the role of self-pumping dressing on skin tissue engineering and wound healing regeneration.

Results: Self-pumping wound dressings are often made by electrospinning, and in some studies,freeze-dryingor a combinationof both methodshave been used toproduce these wounddressings.Thesewounddressings canbetwo-layeredor three-layered, consisting of a hydrophobic layer and a hydrophilic layer, and this layer can be made of hydrogel or nanofibers. Based on the amount of wound exudate, different drugs such as curcumin and antibacterial agents can be loaded inside the layers, and micro- or nanoparticles such as PLGA and microspheres can also be used to enhance the effectiveness of the drug and increase its effectiveness. The use of drugs can stimulate cellular and molecular processes in the healing process. In addition, in order to increase the effectiveness of these types of wound dressings, they can help to release as much exudate as possible by creating pores or aligned channels in the layers. These dressings can change the polarity of macrophages in the inflammatory phase by removing exudates and ROS, as well as increasing angiogenesis, proliferation of fibroblast cells, growth of hair follicles, and increasing collagen production for skin repair.

Conclusion: This systematic review has highlighted the promising prospects of self-pumping materials in wound healing application. More studies are needed to use these engineered material in large animal models and subsequently human clinical trials.

Keywords: Self-pumping Biomaterials, Wound Healing, Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, Exudates draining