Biomimicry of microbial polysaccharide hydrogels for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine – A review

•Biomimicry of microbial polysaccharide hydrogels as TERM scaffolds is discussed.•Microbial polysaccharides form hydrogels easily but lack bioactivity.•Emphasis is placed on material blending with bioactive materials for bioactivity.•A list of organic and inorganic bioactive materials is curated in this review. Hydrogels as artificial biomaterial scaffolds offer a much favoured 3D microenvironment for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). Towards biomimicry of the native ECM, polysaccharides from Nature have been proposed as ideal surrogates given their biocompatibility. In particular, derivatives from microbial sources have emerged as economical and sustainable biomaterials due to their fast and high yielding production procedures. Despite these merits, microbial polysaccharides do not interact biologically with human tissues, a critical limitation hampering their translation into paradigmatic scaffolds for in vitro 3D cell culture. To overcome this, chemical and biological functionalization of polysaccharide scaffolds have been explored extensively. This review outlines the most recent strategies in the preparation of biofunctionalized gellan gum, xanthan gum and dextran hydrogels fabricated exclusively via material blending. Using inorganic or organic materials, we discuss the impact of these approaches on cell adhesion, proliferation and viability of anchorage-dependent cells for various TERM applications.’