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Polymers
Special Issues
Biomedical Applications of Intelligent Hydrogel 2nd Edition
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Biomedical Applications of Intelligent Hydrogel 2nd Edition

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2025 | Viewed by 1690

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Chao Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Engineering Research Center for Nanomedicine, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: biomedical polymer; bioactive material; hydrogel
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Murat Guvendiren

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, NJIT, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102, USA
Interests: hydrogels; polymeric biomaterials; 3D bioprinting; biomimetics; stem cells
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogels form the foundation of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as a supportive matrix for cell immobilization and growth factor delivery. Hydrogels, due to their wide range of properties, have been used as an injectable, for in situ gelling, and as patterned matrices, viscous gels, thin sheets, and three-dimensional scaffolds in regenerative medicine to guide and regulate cells’ fate. The development of new intelligent hydrogels is critical to the success of tissue engineering and medical applications, connected with cell cultivation.

The aim of this Special Issue is to focus on hydrogels with a hierarchical structure; self-assembled hydrogels; hybrid and degradable hydrogels; load-bearing and self-healing hydrogels; hydrogels for cell encapsulation and biofabrication; hydrogels for micro-patterning, microfluidic devices, and high-throughput screening; injectable and in situ hardening hydrogels for minimally invasive applications; hydrogels that modulate the body’s immune response; and hydrogel-based delivery systems for spatiotemporal delivery of growth factors. 

Dr. Chao Xu
Dr. Murat Guvendiren
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • hydrogels
  • microgels
  • responsive materials
  • injectable
  • self-assembled hydrogels

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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9 pages, 2398 KiB  
Article
Pectin Hydrogels as Structural Platform for Antibacterial Drug Delivery
by Tejas Saravanan, Jennifer M. Pan, Franz G. Zingl, Matthew K. Waldor, Yifan Zheng, Hassan A. Khalil and Steven J. Mentzer
Polymers 2024, 16(22), 3202; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16223202 - 19 Nov 2024
Viewed by 352
Abstract
Hydrogels are hydrophilic 3-dimensional networks characterized by the retention of a large amount of water. Because of their water component, hydrogels are a promising method for targeted drug delivery. The water component, or “free volume”, is a potential vehicle for protein drugs. A [...] Read more.
Hydrogels are hydrophilic 3-dimensional networks characterized by the retention of a large amount of water. Because of their water component, hydrogels are a promising method for targeted drug delivery. The water component, or “free volume”, is a potential vehicle for protein drugs. A particularly intriguing hydrogel is pectin. In addition to a generous free volume, pectin has structural characteristics that facilitate hydrogel binding to the glycocalyceal surface of visceral organs. To test drug function and pectin integrity after loading, we compared pectin films from four distinct plant sources: lemon, potato, soybean, and sugar beet. The pectin films were tested for their micromechanical properties and intrinsic antibacterial activity. Lemon pectin films demonstrated the greatest cohesion at 30% water content. Moreover, modest growth inhibition was observed with lemon pectin (p < 0.05). No effective inhibition was observed with soybean, potato, or sugar beet films (p > 0.05). In contrast, lemon pectin films embedded with carbenicillin, chloramphenicol, or kanamycin demonstrated significant bacterial growth inhibition (p < 0.05). The antibacterial activity was similar when the antibiotics were embedded in inert filter disks or pectin disks (p > 0.05). We conclude that lemon pectin films represent a promising structural platform for antibacterial drug delivery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Applications of Intelligent Hydrogel 2nd Edition)
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16 pages, 3311 KiB  
Article
Formulation-Property Effects in Novel Injectable and Resilient Natural Polymer-Based Hydrogels for Soft Tissue Regeneration
by Daniella Goder Orbach, Ilana Roitman, Geffen Coster Kimhi and Meital Zilberman
Polymers 2024, 16(20), 2879; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16202879 - 12 Oct 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 923
Abstract
The development of injectable hydrogels for soft tissue regeneration has gained significant attention due to their minimally invasive application and ability to conform precisely to the shape of irregular tissue cavities. This study presents a novel injectable porous scaffold based on natural polymers [...] Read more.
The development of injectable hydrogels for soft tissue regeneration has gained significant attention due to their minimally invasive application and ability to conform precisely to the shape of irregular tissue cavities. This study presents a novel injectable porous scaffold based on natural polymers that undergoes in situ crosslinking, forming a highly resilient hydrogel with tailorable mechanical and physical properties to meet the specific demands of soft tissue repair. By adjusting the formulation, we achieved a range of stiffness values that closely mimic the mechanical characteristics of native tissues while maintaining very high resilience (>90%). The effects of gelatin, alginate, and crosslinker concentrations, as well as porosity, on the hydrogel’s properties were elucidated. The main results indicated a compression modulus range of 2.7–89 kPa, which fits all soft tissues, and gelation times ranging from 5 to 30 s, which enable the scaffold to be successfully used in various operations. An increase in gelatin and crosslinker concentrations results in a higher modulus and lower gelation time, i.e., a stiffer hydrogel that is created in a shorter time. In vitro cell viability tests on human fibroblasts were performed and indicated high biocompatibility. Our findings demonstrate that these injectable hydrogel scaffolds offer a promising solution for enhancing soft tissue repair and regeneration, providing a customizable and resilient framework that is expected to support tissue integration and healing with minimal surgical intervention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Applications of Intelligent Hydrogel 2nd Edition)
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