Human amniotic membrane as a multifunctional biomaterial: recent advances and applications

The developing fetus is wrapped by a human amniotic membrane or amnion. Amnion is a promising human tissue allograft in clinical application because of its chemical composition, collagen-based, and mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix. In addition, amnion contains cells and growth factors; therefore, meets the essential parameters of tissue engineering. No donor morbidity, easy processing and storage, fewer ethical issue, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, and non-immunogenic properties are other advantages of amnion usage. For these reasons, amnion can resolve some bottlenecks in the regenerative medicine issues such as tissue engineering and cell therapy. Over the last decades, biomedical applications of amnion have evolved from a simple sheet for skin or cornea repair to high-technology applications such as amnion nanocomposite, powder, or hydrogel for the regeneration of cartilage, muscle, tendon, and heart. Furthermore, amnion has anticancer as well as drug/cell delivery capacity. This review highlights various ancient and new applications of amnion in research and clinical applications, from regenerative medicine to cancer therapy, focusing on articles published during the last decade that also revealed information regarding amnion-based products. Challenges and future perspectives of the amnion in regenerative medicine are also discussed.