Next-Generation Tissue Engineering for Diabetes: Biomaterials, Bioprinting, and Regenerative Strategies
Abhishek Sriram
07/09/2026
Diabetes mellitus remains a leading cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputation, and blindness. Current management strategies, including insulin injections, pumps, and artificial pancreas systems, address glycemic symptoms but do not restore the underlying β-cell populations responsible for glucose-responsive insulin secretion. Tissue engineering offers a regenerative alternative by combining living cells, biomaterial scaffolds, and biochemical cues to replicate pancreatic function. This narrative review synthesizes findings from 82 peer-reviewed articles identified through PubMed and ScienceDirect to evaluate five tissue engineering strategies for diabetes: biomaterial scaffolds, hydrogels, encapsulation devices, 3D bioprinting-based cell replacement, and organ-on-a-chip platforms. Each strategy is assessed for mechanism of action, diabetic application, and key limitations. Biomaterial scaffolds support islet engraftment and wound repair but face immune rejection and degradation challenges. Hydrogels enable immunoisolation and wound healing but suffer from diffusion constraints and mechanical fragility. Encapsulation devices protect transplanted β-cells but are limited by fibrotic overgrowth and oxygenation failure. Three-dimensional bioprinting allows precise spatial arrangement of cell types in islet-like constructs, though vascularization and scale-up remain unresolved. Organ-on-a-chip platforms provide physiologically controlled environments for β-cell screening. Critically, these technologies are evaluated in isolation: a gap this review addresses by proposing a four-stage integrated preclinical and clinical pipeline to accelerate translation.