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Gels
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The Role of Polymer Additives in Hydrogel Functionalization 2.0
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The Role of Polymer Additives in Hydrogel Functionalization 2.0

A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 October 2021) | Viewed by 8744

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. David Mills

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Biological Sciences, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA 71272, USA
Interests: cancer biomaterials; bioengineering; implant design; surface modification; targeted drug delivery; tissue engineering; 3D printing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogels are highly hydrated three-dimensional (3D) networks of cross-linked hydrophilic polymer chains and have been widely explored for use as bioactive delivery agents, cell carriers, consumer products, tissue engineering scaffolds, and for wound healing. Hydrogels can be tailored for different chemical, electrical, mechanical and thermal properties and can even be made to conduct electricity. Recent trends have focused on incorporating carbon-based nanomaterials, clay nanomaterials, metallic and polymeric nanoparticles within the polymeric network to create hybrid, multi-composite and multi-responsive hydrogels.

The goal of this Special Issue is to focus attention on the synergies resulting from the combination of these materials. Nanoparticles can significantly enhance or modulate the electrical, bioinductive, pH, thermal or photoresponse. This Special Issue will feature recent advances in this field, focusing on pharmaceutical and regenerative medical applications, and the use of natural and synthetic additives that impart unique, novel or critical functionalities. Manuscripts that address recent advances combining nanoparticles and hydrogels and highlight the synergic combination for the design of hydrogel systems are especially welcome.

Prof. Dr. David Mills
Guest Editor

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. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • additives
  • biomedicine
  • hydrogel
  • functionalities

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 1727 KiB  
Article
Highly Flexibility, Powder Self-Healing, and Recyclable Natural Polymer Hydrogels
by Haiyue Miao, Weiju Hao, Hongtao Liu, Yiyang Liu, Xiaobin Fu, Hailong Huang, Min Ge and Yuan Qian
Gels 2022, 8(2), 89; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/gels8020089 - 31 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3268
Abstract
Based on the good self-healing ability to repair mechanical damage, self-healing hydrogels have aroused great interest and been extensively applied as functional materials. However, when partial failure of hydrogels caused by breaking or dryness occurs, leading to recycling problems, self-healing hydrogels cannot solve [...] Read more.
Based on the good self-healing ability to repair mechanical damage, self-healing hydrogels have aroused great interest and been extensively applied as functional materials. However, when partial failure of hydrogels caused by breaking or dryness occurs, leading to recycling problems, self-healing hydrogels cannot solve the mentioned defects and have to be abandoned. In this work, a novel recyclable and self-healing natural polymer hydrogel (Chitosan/polymethylacrylic acid-: CMA) was prepared. The CMA hydrogel not only exhibited controlled mechanical properties from 26 kPa to 125 kPa with tensile strain from 1357% to 3012%, but also had good water retaining property, stability and fast self-healing properties in 1 min. More importantly, the CMA hydrogel displayed attractive powder self-healing performance. After drying–powdering treatment, the mentioned abandoned hydrogels could easily rebuild their frame structure to recover their original state and performance in 1 min only by adding a small amount of water, which could significantly prolong their service life. These advantages guarantee the hydrogel can effectively defend against reversible mechanical damage, water loss and partial hydrogel failure, suggesting great potential applications as a recyclable functional hydrogel for biomaterials and electronic materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Polymer Additives in Hydrogel Functionalization 2.0)
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9 pages, 4461 KiB  
Article
Electrospun Fibers Derived from Peptide Coupled Amphiphilic Copolymers for Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) Outgrowth
by Na Qiang, Wensheng Lin, Xingwu Zhou, Zhu Liu, Ming Lu, Si Qiu, Shuo Tang and Jixiang Zhu
Gels 2021, 7(4), 196; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/gels7040196 - 04 Nov 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1894
Abstract
Developing scaffolds with appropriate mechanical/structural features as well as tunable bioactivities are indispensable in the field of tissue engineering. This study focused on one such attempt to electrospin the copolymer of L-lactic acid (L-LA) and functional monomer (3(S)- [(benzyloxycarbony)methyl]-1,4-dioxane-2,5-dione, BMD) with small peptide [...] Read more.
Developing scaffolds with appropriate mechanical/structural features as well as tunable bioactivities are indispensable in the field of tissue engineering. This study focused on one such attempt to electrospin the copolymer of L-lactic acid (L-LA) and functional monomer (3(S)- [(benzyloxycarbony)methyl]-1,4-dioxane-2,5-dione, BMD) with small peptide modifications for the purpose of neural tissue engineering. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs showed fabricated electrospun copolymer as porous and uniform nanofibrous materials with diameter in the range of 800–1000 nm. In addition, the modified scaffolds displayed a lower contact angle than poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) indicating higher hydrophilicity. To further incorporate the bioactive functions, the nanofibers were chemically coupled with small peptide (isoleucine-lysine-valine-alanine-valine, IKVAV). The incorporation of IKVAV onto the electrospun fiber was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and such incorporation did not affect the surface morphology or fiber diameters. To demonstrate the potential of applying the designed scaffolds for nerve regeneration, dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons were cultured on the nanofibers to examine the impact on neurite outgrowth of DRGs. The results indicated that the fabricated nanofibrous matrix with small peptide might be a potential candidate for neural tissue engineering. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Polymer Additives in Hydrogel Functionalization 2.0)
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17 pages, 67752 KiB  
Article
In Vitro Evaluation of a Composite Gelatin–Hyaluronic Acid–Alginate Porous Scaffold with Different Pore Distributions for Cartilage Regeneration
by Ssu-Meng Haung, Yu-Ting Lin, Shih-Ming Liu, Jian-Chih Chen and Wen-Cheng Chen
Gels 2021, 7(4), 165; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/gels7040165 - 09 Oct 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2606
Abstract
Although considerable achievements have been made in the field of regenerative medicine, since self-repair is not an advanced ability of articular cartilage, the regeneration of osteochondral defects is still a challenging problem in musculoskeletal diseases. Cartilage regeneration aims to design a scaffold with [...] Read more.
Although considerable achievements have been made in the field of regenerative medicine, since self-repair is not an advanced ability of articular cartilage, the regeneration of osteochondral defects is still a challenging problem in musculoskeletal diseases. Cartilage regeneration aims to design a scaffold with appropriate pore structure and biological and mechanical properties for the growth of chondrocytes. In this study, porous scaffolds made of gelatin, hyaluronic acid, alginate, and sucrose in different proportions of 2 g (SL2) and 4 g (SL4) were used as porogens in a leaching process. Sucrose with particle size ranges of 88–177 μm (Hμ) and 44–74 μm (SHμ) was added to the colloid, and the individually cross-linked hydrogel scaffolds with controllable pore size for chondrocyte culture were named Hμ-SL2, Hμ-SL4, SHμ-SL2 and SHμ-SL4. The perforation, porosity, mechanical strength, biocompatibility, and proliferation characteristics of the hydrogel scaffold and its influence on chondrocyte differentiation are discussed. Results show that the addition of porogen increases the porosity of the hydrogel scaffold. Conversely, when porogens with the same particle size are added, the pore size decreases as the amount of porogen increases. The perforation effect of the hydrogel scaffolds formed by the porogen is better at 88–177 μm compared with that at 44–74 μm. Cytotoxicity analysis showed that all the prepared hydrogel scaffolds were non-cytotoxic, indicating that no cross-linking agent residues that could cause cytotoxicity were found. In the proliferation and differentiation of the chondrocytes, the SHμ-SL4 hydrogel scaffold with the highest porosity and strength did not achieve the best performance. However, due to the compromise between perforation pores, pore sizes, and strength, as well as considering cell proliferation and differentiation, Hμ-SL4 scaffold provided a more suitable environment for the chondrocytes than other groups; therefore, it can provide the best chondrocyte growth environment for this study. The development of hydrogels with customized pore properties for defective cartilage is expected to meet the requirements of the ultimate clinical application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Polymer Additives in Hydrogel Functionalization 2.0)
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