Hydrogel scaffolds for tissue engineering: the importance of polymer choice

Abstract

We explore the design and synthesis of hydrogel scaffolds for tissue engineering from the perspective of the underlying polymer chemistry. The key polymers, properties and architectures used, and their effect on tissue growth are discussed.

Proteins and Peptides as Important Modifiers of the Polymer Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering Applications—A Review

“…For this reason, artificial forms of elastin, i.e., synthetic tropoelastin, α-elastin, elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), and elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs), have been developed. Thanks to their high elasticity, water-solubility, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, they currently constitute good alternatives for elastin [14,15,38,40,70].…”

“…Therefore, they should be biocompatible, biodegradable at the desired rate, porous, and mechanically stable [6,[9][10][11]. Considering these requirements, the scaffolds based on natural and synthetic polymers alone, as well as composites, exhibit the highest biomedical potential [12][13][14]. Among known biodegradable natural polymers, collagen, gelatin, chitosan, elastin, hyaluronic acid (HA), and silk fibroin are commonly used for TE purposes [15,16].…”

“…This phenomenon is tightly associated with no or low presence of aromatic amino acids (i.e., tyrosine, tryptophan, and phenylalanine) in gelatin molecule. Thus, gelatin is found to form significantly lower amount of immunogenic aromatic radicals compared to collagen [14,50,[64][65][66].…”

Biocatalytic reversible control of the stiffness of DNA-modified responsive hydrogels: applications in shape-memory, self-healing and autonomous controlled release of insulin

“…These include pH, 7 heat, 8,9 light, [10][11][12][13] chemical agents 14,15 and magnetic elds. 16 Different applications of stimulus-responsive hydrogels were suggested, including their use as controlled drug-delivery carriers, [17][18][19] sensing, 20 tissue repair, 21,22 bone-healing materials, 23,24 and actuating and robotic devices. [25][26][27][28][29] Within the broad class of stimulusresponsive hydrogels, stimulus-responsive nucleic acidbridged hydrogels, i.e.…”

Angiogenesis in Tissue Engineering: As Nature Intended?

“…However, in absence of laminin EC formed cobblestone-like sheets and slowed VEGF uptake (Stamati et al, 2014). Importantly, by changing the chemistry, density and composition of peptides on the backbone, it is possible to control the stiffness of the biomaterial independently from the scaffold architecture (Spicer, 2020).…”