Alginate is a natural polysaccharide exhibiting excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, having many different applications in the field of biomedicine. Alginate is readily processable for applicable three-dimensional scaffolding materials such as hydrogels, microspheres, microcapsules, sponges, foams and fibers. Alginate-based biomaterials can be utilized as drug delivery systems and cell carriers for tissue engineering. Alginate can be easily modified via chemical and physical reactions to obtain derivatives having various structures, properties, functions and applications. Tuning the structure and properties such as biodegradability, mechanical strength, gelation property and cell affinity can be achieved through combination with other biomaterials, immobilization of specific ligands such as peptide and sugar molecules, and physical or chemical crosslinking. This review focuses on recent advances in the use of alginate and its derivatives in the field of biomedical applications, including wound healing, cartilage repair, bone regeneration and drug delivery, which have potential in tissue regeneration applications.

Injectable, biodegradable scaffolds are important biomaterials for tissue engineering and drug delivery. Hydrogels derived from natural polysaccharides are ideal scaffolds as they resemble the extracellular matrices of tissues comprised of various glycosaminoglycans (GAG). Here, we report a new class of biocompatible and biodegradable composite hydrogels derived from water-soluble chitosan and oxidized hyaluronic acid upon mixing, without the addition of a chemical crosslinking agent. The gelation is attributed to the Schiff-base reaction between amino and aldehyde groups of polysaccharide derivatives. In the current work, N-succinyl-chitosan (S-CS) and aldehyde hyaluronic acid (A-HA) were synthesized for preparation of the composite hydrogels. The polysaccharide derivatives and composite hydrogels were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy. The effect of the ratio of S-CS and A-HA on the gelation time, microstructure, surface morphology, equilibrium swelling, compressive modulus, and in vitro degradation of composite hydrogels was examined. The potential of the composite hydrogel as an injectable scaffold was demonstrated by encapsulation of bovine articular chondrocytes within the composite hydrogel matrix in vitro. The results demonstrated that the composite hydrogel supported cell survival and the cells retained chondrocytic morphology. These characteristics provide a potential opportunity to use the injectable, composite hydrogels in tissue engineering applications.

Hydrogels have many different applications in the field of regenerative medicine. Biodegradable, injectable hydrogels could be utilized as delivery systems, cell carriers, and scaffolds for tissue engineering. Injectable hydrogels are an appealing scaffold because they are structurally similar to the extracellular matrix of many tissues, can often be processed under relatively mild conditions, and may be delivered in a minimally invasive manner. This review will discuss recent advances in the field of injectable hydrogels, including both synthetic and native polymeric materials, which can be potentially used in cartilage and soft tissue engineering applications.

A series of thermosensitive copolymer hydrogels, aminated hyaluronic acid-g-poly(Nisopropylacrylamide) (AHA-g-PNIPAAm), were synthesized by coupling carboxylic end-capped PNIPAAm (PNIPAAm-COOH) to AHA through amide bond linkages. AHA was prepared by grafting adipic dihydrazide to the HA backbone and PNIPAAm-COOH copolymer was synthesized via a facile thermo-radical polymerization technique by polymerization of NIPAAm using 4,4′-azobis(4-cyanovaleric acid) as an initiator, respectively. The structure of AHA and AHA-gPNIPAAm copolymer was determined by 1 H NMR. Two AHA-g-PNIPAAm copolymers with different weight ratios of PNIPAAm on the applicability of injectable hydrogels were characterized. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of AHA-g-PNIPAAm copolymers in PBS were measured as ~30°C by rheological analysis, regardless of the grafting degrees. Enzymatic resistance of AHA-g-PNIPAAm hydrogels with 28% and 53% of PNIPAAm in 100U/mL hyaluronidase/PBS at 37°C was 12.3% and 37.6% over 28 days, respectively. Equilibrium swelling ratios of AHA-gPNIPAAm hydrogels with 28% of PNIPAAm were 21.5, and significantly decreased to 13.3 with 53% of PNIPAAm in PBS at 37°C. Results from SEM observations confirm a porous 3D AHA-gPNIPAAm hydrogel structure with interconnected pores after freeze-drying and the pore diameter depends on the weight ratios of PNIPAAm. Encapsulation of human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) within hydrogels showed the AHA-g-PNIPAAm copolymers were noncytotoxic and preserved the viability of the entrapped cells. A preliminary in vivo study demonstrated the usefulness of the AHA-g-PNIPAAm copolymer as an injectable hydrogel for adipose tissue engineering. This newly described thermoresponsive AHA-g-PNIPAAm copolymer demonstrated attractive properties to serve as cell or pharmaceutical delivery vehicles for a variety of tissue engineering applications.

Cell migration participates in a variety of physiological and pathological processes such as embryonic development, cancer metastasis, blood vessel formation and remoulding, tissue regeneration, immune surveillance and inflammation. The cells specifically migrate to destiny sites induced by the gradually varying concentration (gradient) of soluble signal factors and the ligands bound with the extracellular matrix in the body during a wound healing process. Therefore, regulation of the cell migration behaviours is of paramount importance in regenerative medicine. One important way is to create a microenvironment that mimics the in vivo cellular and tissue complexity by incorporating physical, chemical and biological signal gradients into engineered biomaterials. In this review, the gradients existing in vivo and their influences on cell migration are briefly described. Recent developments in the fabrication of gradient biomaterials for controlling cellular behaviours, especially the cell migration, are summarized, highlighting the importance of the intrinsic driving mechanism for tissue regeneration and the design principle of complicated and advanced tissue regenerative materials. The potential uses of the gradient biomaterials in regenerative medicine are introduced. The current and future trends in gradient biomaterials and programmed cell migration in terms of the long-term goals of tissue regeneration are prospected.