Tailoring cell sheets for biomedical applications

Abstract

Cell sheet technology has emerged as a novel scaffold‐free approach for cell‐based therapies in regenerative medicine. Techniques for harvesting cell sheets are essential to preserve the integrity of living cell sheets. This review provides an overview of fundamental technologies to fabricate cell sheets and recent advances in cell sheet‐based tissue engineering. In addition to the commonly used temperature‐responsive systems, we introduce alternative approaches, such as ROS‐induced, magnetic‐controlled, and light‐induced cell sheet technologies. Moreover, we discuss the modification of the cell sheet to improve its function, including stacking, genetic modification, and vascularization. With the significant advances in cell sheet technology, cell sheets have been widely applied in various tissues and organs, including but not limited to the lung, cornea, cartilage, periodontium, heart, and liver. This review further describes both the preclinical and clinical applications of cell sheets. We believe that the progress in cell sheet technology would further propel its biomedical applications.