Applied Sciences

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Dr. Marta Tunesi

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering “G. Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milan, Italy
Interests: additive manufacturing; hydrogels; rheology; biocompatibility; 3D culture; in vitro models; organ-on-a-chip-devices; drug delivery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Teresa Russo

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Guest Editor

Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council of Italy, V.le J.F. Kennedy 54 - Pad. 20 Mostra d’Oltremare, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: nanocomposites; materials characterization; additive manufacturing; 3D Printing; tissue engineering and tissue repair/regeneration; hydrogels for biomedical applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims at understanding, evaluating, and reviewing the complexity of hydrogel composites and their remarkable potential to provide new, exciting solutions and opportunities in bioengineering applications.

Thanks to their unique properties, hydrogels represent elective materials in the biomedical field. Their hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, different macromolecular structures, and sensitivity to stimuli have ensured their growing expansion in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and drug delivery. A wide range of materials has been investigated, and the synergetic effects of design and material chemistry translates into enhanced performances, both in vitro and in vivo. To this goal, the use of composite hydrogels, but also nano- and microgel composites, with superior mechanical and biological properties, has emerged as effective to stimulate or modulate specific responses.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences, “Hydrogel Composites for Bioengineering Applications”, seeks high-quality works focusing on the following topics:

Identification of new trends and manufacturing technologies;
Advancements in the synthesis and characterization;
Advantages for tissue engineering, biofabrication, and drug delivery;
Exploitation for cell encapsulation and dynamic culture (e.g., in organs-on-chips).

We look forward to receiving your contributions for this Special Issue.

Dr. Marta Tunesi
Dr. Teresa Russo
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. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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

Bioengineering applications, regenerative medicine
Hydrogel composites
Biofabrication, bioprinting, cell culture, dynamic culture, drug delivery, 3D models
Material testing and characterization

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 6952 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Biohydrogel Based on Dynamic Covalent Bonds for Wound Healing Applications

by Chukwuma O. Agubata, Cynthia C. Mbaoji, Ifeanyi T. Nzekwe, César Saldías and David Díaz Díaz

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(15), 6945; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11156945 - 28 Jul 2021

Viewed by 1673

Abstract

In this work, a biohydrogel based on alginate and dynamic covalent B-O bonds, and derived composites, has been evaluated for wound healing applications. In particular, a phenylboronic acid–alginate (PBA-Alg) complex was synthesized by coupling 3-aminophenylboronic acid onto alginate, and used to prepare varied concentrations of hydrogels and silicate-based nanocomposites in PBS. The resulting hydrogels were characterized in terms of interfacial tension, moisture uptake and loss, interaction with fresh acid-soluble collagen, self-healing ability, effects on blood clotting and wound healing. The interfacial tension between the hydrogels and biorelevant fluids was low and moisture loss of 55–60% was evident without uptake from the environment. The components of the hydrogels and their mixtures with collagen were found to be compatible. These hydrogels showed efficient self-healing and thixotropic behavior, and the animals in the treatment groups displayed blood clotting times between 9.1 min and 10.7 min. In contrast, the composites showed much longer or shorter clotting times depending on the silicate content. A significant improvement in wound healing was observed in 3% w/v PBA-Alg formulations. Overall, the PBA-Alg hydrogels exhibit self-healing dynamic covalent interactions and may be useful in dressings for incision wounds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogel Composites for Bioengineering Applications)

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Review

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20 pages, 3034 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperReview

Designing Hydrogel-Based Bone-On-Chips for Personalized Medicine

by Gabriele Nasello, Mar Cóndor, Ted Vaughan and Jessica Schiavi

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(10), 4495; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11104495 - 14 May 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3267

Abstract

The recent development of bone-on-chips (BOCs) holds the main advantage of requiring a low quantity of cells and material, compared to traditional In Vitro models. By incorporating hydrogels within BOCs, the culture system moved to a three dimensional culture environment for cells which is more representative of bone tissue matrix and function. The fundamental components of hydrogel-based BOCs, namely the cellular sources, the hydrogel and the culture chamber, have been tuned to mimic the hematopoietic niche in the bone aspirate marrow, cancer bone metastasis and osteo/chondrogenic differentiation. In this review, we examine the entire process of developing hydrogel-based BOCs to model In Vitro a patient specific situation. First, we provide bone biological understanding for BOCs design and then how hydrogel structural and mechanical properties can be tuned to meet those requirements. This is followed by a review on hydrogel-based BOCs, developed in the last 10 years, in terms of culture chamber design, hydrogel and cell source used. Finally, we provide guidelines for the definition of personalized pathological and physiological bone microenvironments. This review covers the information on bone, hydrogel and BOC that are required to develop personalized therapies for bone disease, by recreating clinically relevant scenarii in miniaturized devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogel Composites for Bioengineering Applications)

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