Hydrogels: Properties and Applications in Biomedicine. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Hydrogels are crosslinked polymer chains with three-dimensional (3D) network structures, which can absorb relatively large amounts of fluid. Because of the high water content, soft structure, and porosity of hydrogels, they closely resemble living tissues. Research in recent years shows that hydrogels have been applied in various fields, such as agriculture, biomaterials, the food industry, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Along with the underlying technology improvements of hydrogel development, hydrogels can be expected to be applied in more fields. Although not all hydrogels have good biodegradability and biocompatibility, such as synthetic hydrogels (polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylamide, polyethylene glycol hydrogels, etc.), their biodegradability and biocompatibility can be adjusted by modification of their functional group or incorporation of natural polymers. Hence, scientists are still interested in the biomedical applications of hydrogels due to their creative adjustability for different uses. In this review, we first introduce the basic information of hydrogels, such as structure, classification, and synthesis. Then, we further describe the recent applications of hydrogels in 3D cell cultures, drug delivery, wound dressing, and tissue engineering. 10.3390/molecules27092902

Polymer Micelles Laden Hydrogel Contact Lenses for Ophthalmic Drug Delivery. Hu Xiaohong,Tan Huaping,Chen Pin,Wang Xin,Pang Juan Journal of nanoscience and nanotechnology Hydrogel contact lens is an attractive drug carrier for the delivery of ophthalmic drugs. But limited drug loading capacity and burst release restricted its application in this field. Polymer micelle laden hydrogel contact lenses were designed for ophthalmic drug delivery in the work. β-CD/PAA/PEG ternary system was chosen to form polymer micelle. The micelle size could be adjusted by β-CD content and PAA/PEG concentration. The zeta potential of micelle was irrelevant to β-CD content, but influenced by PAA/PEG concentration. The absorbed drug concentration in micelle solution depended on both β-CD content and PAA/PEG concentration. Polymer micelle laden hydrogels were obtained by radical polymerization in situ. The transparency of polymer micelle laden hydrogel declined with PAA/PEG concentration increasing. The equilibrium water content and water loss showed that polymer micelle laden hydrogel with higher PAA/PEG concentration was in a higher swollen state. The dynamic viscoelastic properties howed that all polymer micelle laden hydrogels had some characteristics of crosslinked elastomers. The surface structure of freeze dried composite hydrogels was different from freeze dried pure hydrogel. The drug loading and releasing behaviors were detected to evaluate the drug loading and releasing capacity of hydrogels using orfloxacin and puerarin as model drugs. The results indicated the polymer micelle in hydrogel could hold or help to hold some ophthalmic drugs, and slow down orfloxacin release speed or keep puerarin stably stay for a time in hydrogels. In the end, it was found that the transparency of composite hydrogel became better after the hydrogel had been immersed in PBS for several weeks. 10.1166/jnn.2016.11733

Mechanically-Compliant Bioelectronic Interfaces through Fatigue-Resistant Conducting Polymer Hydrogel Coating. Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) Because of their distinct electrochemical and mechanical properties, conducting polymer hydrogels have been widely exploited as soft, wet, and conducting coatings for conventional metallic electrodes, providing mechanically compliant interfaces and mitigating foreign body responses. However, the long-term viability of these hydrogel coatings is hindered by concerns regarding fatigue crack propagation and/or delamination caused by repetitive volumetric expansion/shrinkage during long-term electrical interfacing. This study reports a general yet reliable approach to achieving a fatigue-resistant conducting polymer hydrogel coating on conventional metallic bioelectrodes by engineering nanocrystalline domains at the interface between the hydrogel and metallic substrates. It demonstrates the efficacy of this robust, biocompatible, and fatigue-resistant conducting hydrogel coating in cardiac pacing, showcasing its ability to effectively reduce the pacing threshold voltage and enhance the long-term reliability of electric stimulation. This study findings highlight the potential of its approach as a promising design and fabrication strategy for the next generation of seamless bioelectronic interfaces. 10.1002/adma.202304095

A natural polymer-based hydrogel with shape controllability and high toughness and its application to efficient osteochondral regeneration. Materials horizons Hydrogels prepared from sustainable natural polymers have broad prospects in the biological field. However, their poor mechanical properties and challenges in achieving shape control have limited their application. Herein, a novel preforming dual-effect post-enhancing method is proposed to address these issues. The method utilizes the hydrogen bonding of agar to obtain a shape-controllable preformed hydrogel at low polymer concentrations using casting, injection, or 3D printing techniques. Subsequently, the preformed hydrogel was subjected to a permeation process to form a post-enhanced multi-network (PEMN) hydrogel with hierarchical chain entanglements to ensure its high toughness, which exhibits tensile and compressive strengths of up to 0.51 MPa and 1.26 MPa with solely physically crosslinking networks. The excellent biocompatibility of the PEMN hydrogel prepared without the need for additional initiator agents under mild conditions was confirmed by both and experiments. Furthermore, the adaptability for irregular defects, suitable toughness, adhesive properties, and degradability of PEMN hydrogels are beneficial to provide mechanical support, induce endogenous cell mineralization, and accelerate the regeneration of cartilage and subchondral bone with more than 40% bone regeneration in 12 weeks. Our work has provided a novel solution to simultaneously achieve shape controllability and high toughness based on natural polymers among the already well-explored strategies for osteochondral regeneration. 10.1039/d3mh00544e