Hydrogel-assisted neuroregeneration approaches towards brain injury therapy: A state-of-the-art review

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the development of an enormous variety of hydrogel-based systems for neuroregeneration. Formed from hydrophilic polymers and comprised of up to 90% of water, these three-dimensional networks are promising tools for brain tissue regeneration. They can assist structural and functional restoration of damaged tissues by providing mechanical support and navigating cell fate. Hydrogels also show the potential for brain injury therapy due to their broadly tunable physical, chemical, and biological properties. Hydrogel polymers, which have been extensively implemented in recent brain injury repair studies, include hyaluronic acid, collagen type I, alginate, chitosan, methylcellulose, Matrigel, fibrin, gellan gum, self-assembling peptides and proteins, poly(ethylene glycol), methacrylates, and methacrylamides. When viewed as tools for neuroregeneration, hydrogels can be divided into: (1) hydrogels suitable for brain injury therapy, (2) hydrogels that do not meet basic therapeutic requirements and (3) promising hydrogels which meet the criteria for further investigations. Our analysis shows that fibrin, collagen I and self-assembling peptide-based hydrogels display very attractive properties for neuroregeneration.

Chemical cross‐linking of xenopericardial biomeshes: A bottom‐up study of structural and functional correlations

“…Personalization of biomeshes is required to encourage their integration into the living tissues and to minimize the adverse side effects. In this regard, biomesh must be compatible with the surrounding tissue, that is, be not cytotoxic or stiff and possess desirable topology and biodegradation rate . For example, for heart valve prostheses, smooth surface, proteolytic stability and mechanical strength are demanded, while resorbability and moderate roughness are beneficial to bone augmentation .…”

Solid-State Synthesis of Water-Soluble Chitosan-g-Hydroxyethyl Cellulose Copolymers

“…Other forms of scaffolds for tissue engineering (such as hydrogels) are of great importance and open for polysaccharide-based materials. Among a variety of polymers used for the fabrication of hydrogels for neuroregeneration, chitosan and cellulose derivatives are widely recognized [38,39].…”

Innovations in 3D Tissue Models of Human Brain Physiology and Diseases

“…[291,292] Due to the prevalence of hyaluronic acid (HA) in native brain tissue, this polymer has been extensively studied as a substrate for central neural tissue engineering. [293] However, since unmodified HA does not support cell attachment, HA hydrogels must be modified with cell adhesion molecules or blended with other ECM components such as collagen. [294] As an example, a Nogo-66 receptor antagonist was used to modify HA hydrogels to improve the neuronal adherence and survival of DRGs in vitro as well as induce neurite outgrowth.…”