Application of Composite Hydrogels to Control Physical Properties in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

The development of biomaterials for the restoration of the normal tissue structure–function relationship in pathological conditions as well as acute and chronic injury is an area of intense investigation. More recently, the use of tailored or composite hydrogels for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has sought to bridge the gap between natural tissues and applied biomaterials more clearly. By applying traditional concepts in engineering composites, these hydrogels represent hierarchical structured materials that translate more closely the key guiding principles required for improved recovery of tissue architecture and functional behavior, including physical, mass transport, and biological properties. For tissue-engineering scaffolds in general, and more specifically in composite hydrogel materials, each of these properties provide unique qualities that are essential for proper augmentation and repair following disease and injury. The broad focus of this review is on physical properties in particular, static and dynamic mechanical properties provided by composite hydrogel materials and their link to native tissue architecture and, ultimately, tissue-specific applications for composite hydrogels.

Natural biopolymer‐based hydrogels for use in food and agriculture

“…Hydrogels were first reported in the 1960s by Wichterle and Lim and they are defined as three‐dimensional, hydrophilic, polymer networks swollen with water . Hydrogels have numerous applications in medicine, agriculture, cosmetics, and the food industry . They are also used in personal care products, filters for water purification, separation membranes, etc …”

“…Furthermore, hydrogels have strong potential to contribute to medicine due to their physicomechanical properties and biocompatibility, which can be useful for tissue engineering. This aspect has been reviewed by Bazaka et al ., Berger et al ., Van Vlierberghe et al ., and Sheffield et al ., and in Dumitriu's book Polysaccharides in Medicinal Applications . Hydrogels are also widely utilized in food and agriculture; for instance, their good water retention and slow‐release capacity can be used for the improvement of soil properties and reduction of fertilizer loss .…”

Application of injectable hydrogels for cardiac stem cell therapy and tissue engineering

“…Natural polymersbased hydrogels are bioactive and biocompatible but have undesirable features including uncontrolled degradation, poor mechanical strength, weak elastic property and long gelation times. Hybrid hydrogels comes into existence by conjugating both natural and synthetic polymers, which compensate for their individual weaknesses for successful tissue engineering practices (Li and Guan, 2011;Sheffield et al, 2018). Table 1 displays some of the hybrid hydrogels employed in the recent times in cardiac regeneration.…”

Design of RGDS Peptide-Immobilized Self-Assembling β-Strand Peptide from Barnacle Protein

“…In recent years, the self-assembly of peptides using β-sheet structure has been actively conducted in the fields of functional hydrogels, nanomaterials, and biomaterials [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. In biomaterials, the use of chemical compounds is popular in various fields such as organic polymers, artificial proteins, and sugars.…”