Hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Alginate is a natural polysaccharide exhibiting excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, having many different applications in the field of biomedicine Alginate is readily processable for applicable three-dimensional scaffolding materials such as hydrogels, microspheres, microcapsules, sponges, foams and fibers Alginate-based biomaterials can be utilized as drug delivery systems and cell carriers for tissue engineering Alginate can be easily modified via chemical and physical reactions to obtain derivatives having various structures, properties, functions and applications Tuning the structure and properties such as biodegradability, mechanical strength, gelation property and cell affinity can be achieved through combination with other biomaterials, immobilization of specific ligands such as peptide and sugar molecules, and physical or chemical crosslinking This review focuses on recent advances in the use of alginate and its derivatives in the field of biomedical applications, including wound healing, cartilage repair, bone regeneration and drug delivery, which have potential in tissue regeneration applications

Alginate-Based Biomaterials for Regenerative Medicine Applications.

Tissue engineering has become a promising strategy for repairing damaged cartilage and bone tissue Among the scaffolds for tissue-engineering applications, injectable hydrogels have demonstrated great potential for use as three-dimensional cell culture scaffolds in cartilage and bone tissue engineering, owing to their high water content, similarity to the natural extracellular matrix (ECM), porous framework for cell transplantation and proliferation, minimal invasive properties, and ability to match irregular defects In this review, we describe the selection of appropriate biomaterials and fabrication methods to prepare novel injectable hydrogels for cartilage and bone tissue engineering In addition, the biology of cartilage and the bony ECM is also summarized Finally, future perspectives for injectable hydrogels in cartilage and bone tissue engineering are discussed

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Injectable hydrogels for cartilage and bone tissue engineering.

Alginate composites for bone tissue engineering: a review.

Adaptable hydrogels have recently emerged as a promising platform for three-dimensional (3D) cell encapsulation and culture. In conventional, covalently crosslinked hydrogels, degradation is typically required to allow complex cellular functions to occur, leading to bulk material degradation. In contrast, adaptable hydrogels are formed by reversible crosslinks. Through breaking and re-formation of the reversible linkages, adaptable hydrogels can be locally modified to permit complex cellular functions while maintaining their long-term integrity. In addition, these adaptable materials can have biomimetic viscoelastic properties that make them well suited for several biotechnology and medical applications. In this review, an overview of adaptable-hydrogel design considerations and linkage selections is presented, with a focus on various cell-compatible crosslinking mechanisms that can be exploited to form adaptable hydrogels for tissue engineering.

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Adaptable Hydrogel Networks with Reversible Linkages for Tissue Engineering

Covalently polysaccharide-based alginate/chitosan hydrogel embedded alginate microspheres for BSA encapsulation and soft tissue engineering.

Biological self-assembly of injectable hydrogel as cell scaffold via specific nucleobase pairing

Injectable hybrid hydrogels were produced by mixing crosslinked aldehyde hyaluronic acid with dexamethasone grafted water soluble chitosan, without the addition of a chemical crosslinking agent. The gelation is attributed to the Schiff-base reaction between amino and aldehyde groups of hydrogel precursors. In this article, the water soluble chitosan, N-succinyl-chitosan, grafted with dexamethasone via water soluble carbodiimide chemistry has been characterized. In vitro gelation time, morphologies, swelling, weight loss, and compressive modulus of hybrid hydrogels in phosphate buffered saline were studied. The dexamethasone grafted hydrogel showed a slightly lower gelation time, higher water uptake and faster weight loss compared to the hydrogel without dexamethasone. Human adipose-derived stem cells were encapsulated into the dexamethasone grafted hydrogel in vitro to assess the biological performance and applicability of the hydrogel as cell carrier. Results demonstrated that the dexamethasone grafted hydrogel resulted in enhanced cell adhesion and proliferation as compared to the hydrogel without dexamethasone. These characteristics provide a potential opportunity for the dexamethasone grafted hybrid hydrogel as an injectable scaffold in adipose tissue engineering applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

Jinchen Sun

Papers

Alginate-Based Biomaterials for Regenerative Medicine Applications.

Covalently polysaccharide-based alginate/chitosan hydrogel embedded alginate microspheres for BSA encapsulation and soft tissue engineering.

Biological self-assembly of injectable hydrogel as cell scaffold via specific nucleobase pairing

Covalently crosslinked hyaluronic acid‐chitosan hydrogel containing dexamethasone as an injectable scaffold for soft tissue engineering

Double stimulus-induced stem cell aggregation during differentiation on a biopolymer hydrogel substrate