Supramolecular Adhesive Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a promising and revolutionary strategy to treat patients who suffer the loss or failure of an organ or tissue, with the aim to restore the dysfunctional tissues and enhance life expectancy. Supramolecular adhesive hydrogels are emerging as appealing materials for tissue engineering applications owing to their favorable attributes such as tailorable structure, inherent flexibility, excellent biocompatibility, near-physiological environment, dynamic mechanical strength, and particularly attractive self-adhesiveness. In this review, the key design principles and various supramolecular strategies to construct adhesive hydrogels are comprehensively summarized. Thereafter, the recent research progress regarding their tissue engineering applications, including primarily dermal tissue repair, muscle tissue repair, bone tissue repair, neural tissue repair, vascular tissue repair, oral tissue repair, corneal tissue repair, cardiac tissue repair, fetal membrane repair, hepatic tissue repair, and gastric tissue repair, is systematically highlighted. Finally, the scientific challenges and the remaining opportunities are underlined to show a full picture of the supramolecular adhesive hydrogels. This review is expected to offer comparative views and critical insights to inspire more advanced studies on supramolecular adhesive hydrogels and pave the way for different fields even beyond tissue engineering applications.

Bioinspired gelatin based sticky hydrogel for diverse surfaces in burn wound care

“…Such soft wound dressing can be beneficial for treating burn wounds since the stickiness of the hydrogel is not extreme adhesive and tough. For many marketed gelatin-based sealants, tissue adhesives can be beneficial for tissue repairs 1 , 8 , 18 . Such tissue injuries call for immediate attention to restore standard organ functionality.…”

“…Humankind’s quest for inspiration from nature has led to the successful creation of novel and functional hydrogels 1 . The biomimicking of slug-based protective mucus contributed to the development of tough, surface-sticking hydrogels of an alginate-polyacrylamide combination 2 , 3 .…”

Recent Development of Conductive Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering: Review and Perspective

“…In addition, hydrogels can deliver drugs/cells to the target sites. [134,135] In another aspect, electrical signals are essential for neuronal cells to survive, differentiate, and activate neural circuits. Electrical activity plays an essential role in the early development of the nervous system by regulating expression profiles of genes related to voltage-gated ion channels.…”

Functional supramolecular gels based on poly(benzyl ether) dendrons and dendrimers

“…If structural designs are appropriate, it is easy and favorable to fabricate functional soft materials with unique and tunable properties. Benefiting from the aforementioned characters and advantages of supramolecular gels, a number of functional supramolecular hydrogel [16][17][18] and organogel [19][20][21][22] systems have been successfully developed and have exhibited many potential applications in the field of biomedicine, tissue engineering, drug delivery, environmental remediation, catalysis, chemosensors, photoelectric and energy materials, lightharvesting systems, self-healing materials, and supramolecular chirality in the last few decades.…”