Biologics for Bone and Soft Tissue Regeneration: What Is New, What Is True—Second Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Injuries to the musculoskeletal system, including bones, ligaments, muscles, and tendons, can cause pain, losses of function, instability, and, in the long term, osteoarthritis. Traditionally, the management of these injuries involves activity modification, physical therapy, a variety of surgical procedures, and pharmacological agents, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, viscosupplementation, and narcotics. All these modalities have limitations and potential side effects.

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in the use of biologics in regenerative medicine applications. In regenerative medicine, functional tissue is engineered to repair, regenerate, or replace cells, tissues, or organs to restore and/or establish normal function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. Biologics currently used in clinical practice include platelet-rich plasma, bone marrow aspirate, adipose tissue aspirate, amniotic fluid, amniotic membranes, umbilical-cord-derived Wharton’s Jelly, and umbilical cord blood. The healing potential of these products is attributed to their content of stem cells, growth factors, cytokines, hyaluronic acid, and extracellular vesicles, including exosomes.

The increasing applications of biologic therapies in regenerative medicine have led to considerable marketing efforts, patient demand, and clinical use. This collection highlights the current status of these biologic therapies and challenges and emerging trends in their use for regenerating musculoskeletal tissues, including bone and soft tissues. We welcome the submission of original research and review articles covering both fundamental and translational studies on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

• The mechanisms of action of these biologics’ therapeutic effects;
• The therapeutics effects of these biologics in regenerating bone and/or soft tissue(s);
• Comparisons of therapies using these biologics to the current standard treatments;
• Identifying research gaps to guide future research and streamline the translation to clinical utilization.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Dr. Ashim Gupta
Prof. Dr. Nicola Maffulli
Dr. Erwin Pavel Lamparelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomedicines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• regenerative medicine
• stem cells
• exosomes
• musculoskeletal injuries
• osteoarthritis
• tissue regeneration
• tissue engineering
• biologics
• bone
• soft tissue