Stimuli-Responsive Polysaccharide Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications: a Review

Autor: Iman Gholamali
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine. 7:91-114
ISSN: 2364-4141
2364-4133
DOI: 10.1007/s40883-019-00134-1
Popis: This review aims to present methods for obtaining polysaccharide hydrogels, their properties and sensitivity to environmental stimuli, as well as their potential applications in biomedicine. Living systems respond to external stimuli by adapting themselves to changing conditions. Hydrogels are a class of materials with 3D networks of polymers that can absorb high amounts of water or biological fluids while remaining insoluble under physiological conditions compared with general absorbent materials, with their characteristic being dependent on network structure and the external environment. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels have the ability to respond to changes in their external environment. They can exhibit dramatic changes in their swelling behavior, network structure, permeability, and mechanical strength in response to variations in temperature, pH, glucose, electric field, light, etc. However, such changes are reversible; therefore, hydrogels can convert to their initial state as soon as the trigger is removed. Because of compatibility with living tissues, hydrogels can be used in different biomedical purposes. The application of stimuli-responsive polysaccharide hydrogels in the biomedical field has become increasingly popular with many research groups and industries. In addition to their ability to undergo large reversible transitions in their swelling behavior due to small physiological or environmental changes, they are also often highly biocompatible and versatile and possess a high storage capacity for the immobilization of biomolecules.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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