Regenerative Advances in Burn Care: iPSC-Derived MSCs as a Next-Generation Therapy for Burn Wound Healing

Severe burn injuries represent a major challenge to regenerative medicine since the damaged tissue must be repaired rapidly to avoid fatal complications; however, successful healing necessitates far more than closing the wounds. Although conventional skin grafting and biomaterial substitutes have improved wound coverage and survival, they often fall short of restoring the complex structure and function of native skin. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) introduced a biologically active approach to combat this problem. However, their clinical translation has been hindered by classical MSC challenges, including limited scalability, donor-based variability, and age-associated functional decline. The emergence of iPSC-derived mesenchymal stem cells (iMSCs) as potent, scalable, and immunologically compatible stem cells offers an opportunity to address these challenges. In this review, we outline the evolution of stem cell-based approaches to burn wound healing, from conventional somatic MSCs to iMSCs. We evaluate evidence supporting iMSCs as a potentially superior regenerative platform. Furthermore, we discuss the emerging cell-free alternatives that retain regenerative signalling while addressing the limitations of cell-based therapies. Collectively, this review provides evidence that iMSCs not only represent an advance in MSC therapies but also a vanguard for a new generation of standardized, scalable, and biologically superior therapies for burn injuries.