Growing Relevance of Decellularized Plant Material as Functional Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering and Cultured Meat: A Scoping Review on Recent Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions.

Abstract

Bioengineered substitutes and three-dimensional (3D) culture models derived from decellularized plant-based materials have gained increasing attention in tissue engineering (TE). Various plant skeletons exhibit biomimetic architectures resembling human tissues, offering readily available, cost-effective, and sustainable platforms for designing hierarchically organized regenerative scaffolds. Decellularized vegetal tissues, including leaves, stems, fruits, and vegetables, display diverse anatomical, mechanical, and vascular features that can closely emulate the native extracellular matrix (ECM). Given the rapid growth of interest in plant-derived scaffolds, this scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of their current state, applications, and future prospects. To the best of our knowledge, a unified summary of plant-based biomaterials for both regenerative medicine and in vitro meat production has not been previously reported. This review discusses the rationale for using vegetal scaffolds, their preparation and decellularization techniques, chemical and structural modification strategies, and biocompatibility evaluations in both in vitro and in vivo settings. Particular emphasis is placed on their applications in tissue regeneration and cellular agriculture, highlighting how their structural diversity and functional adaptability enable tissue-specific applications. Finally, the review addresses key challenges and future directions required to translate these sustainable, next-generation plant-derived scaffolds for unmet healthcare needs in TE and emerging food technologies.