Progress and perspectives on hydrogel-assisted skin organoids

Abstract

Skin organoids offer a powerful in vitro platform for modeling human skin physiology, disease mechanisms, and regenerative processes. However, faithfully recapitulating the multilayered architecture of skin, diverse appendages, and integrated vascular- neural networks remains a major challenge. As key extracellular matrix mimetics, hydrogels have emerged as central enablers in advancing skin organoid engineering by complementing passive self-organization with programmable biofabrication strategies. This review summarizes recent progress in hydrogel-assisted skin organoid engineering, highlighting how these systems enable the reconstruction of layered skin architectures, support the morphogenesis of skin appendages, and facilitate the integration of vascular and neural components, thereby progressively improving the structural and functional fidelity of skin organoids. These developments position hydrogel-based platforms as essential tools for advancing next-generation skin organoid models. By enabling more precise control over the microenvironment and tissue organization, hydrogel-assisted strategies are expected to accelerate the development of physiologically relevant skin organoids and expand their applications in regenerative medicine, drug discovery, and the study of complex skin disorders.

Keywords

Skin organoids / Hydrogels / Skin tissue engineering / 3D bioprinting / Extracellular matrix

Acknowledgments

None.

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82202456), the Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (KJQN202400424), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Special Program (2025T180555), the Young Top Talent Program of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (ZYRC2022-01), the Chongqing Municipal Special Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023CQBSHTB3105), the Young Top Talent Program in Medicine, Chongqing Municipality (YXQN202467), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation General Program (2024MD754019).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Yulian Zheng, Zhiling Luo

Visualization: Yongli Li, Yushan He, Yi Zhu

Writing-original draft: Xinyi Huang, Russell R. Reid

Writing-review & editing: Lu Chen, Tong-Chuan He, Hengshu Zhang

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data

Not applicable.

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