Issue 18, 2025, Issue in Progress

Layer-by-layer assembly: advancing skin repair, one layer at a time

Abstract

Skin wound management remains a critical global healthcare challenge, with annual costs exceeding £30 billion. Traditional treatments like autografts face limitations in cost, availability, and recovery times. This review explores spray-assisted Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technology as a transformative approach for wound healing, emphasising its ability to deposit natural- and synthetic-polyelectrolytes such as chitosan, alginate, hyaluronic acid, and collagen into nanoscale coatings. These biocompatible multilayers integrate therapeutic agents to accelerate healing, reduce infections, and mimic native extracellular matrix structures. The work highlights emerging spray device innovations that optimise spray parameters to enhance cell viability, coverage, and clinical outcomes. While LbL techniques demonstrate versatility across substrates and scalability via immersion, spray, and microfluidic methods, challenges persist in manufacturing uniformity and clinical translation. The review underscores the urgent need for clinical trials to validate Lbl-based coatings in real-world settings and addresses gaps in portable, sustainable device development. By bridging advanced materials science with clinical practice, spray-assisted LbL technology offers a roadmap to overcome current wound care limitations, prioritising biocompatibility, cost-efficiency, and improved patient safety in regenerative medicine.

Graphical abstract: Layer-by-layer assembly: advancing skin repair, one layer at a time

Transparent peer review

To support increased transparency, we offer authors the option to publish the peer review history alongside their article.

View this article’s peer review history

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
15 Nov 2024
Accepted
28 Mar 2025
First published
29 Apr 2025
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2025,15, 13908-13923

Layer-by-layer assembly: advancing skin repair, one layer at a time

E. Hasan, C. J. Lewis, J. G. Hernandez, P. Gentile and A. M. Ferreira, RSC Adv., 2025, 15, 13908 DOI: 10.1039/D4RA08115C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements