Abstrait

Self-Healing Hydrogels as Biomedical Scaffolds for Cell, Gene and Drug Delivery

Weizhong Yuan and Chunyao Wang

Self-healing polymeric hydrogels have the capability to recover their structures and functionalities upon injury, which are extremely attractive in emerging biomedical applications. Self-healing hydrogels with multifunctional properties as an important biomaterial class have been widely used in delivering cell, gene, drug and so on. Except high water content similar with extracellular matrix (ECM), hydrogels also need meet biocompatible scaffold requirements such as degradable, tough, injectable and good adhesiveness, and are developing more functional and smarter. Based on the significant studies of the biomedical scaffold in recent years, we review the widely used mechanism of the self-healing hydrogels, with focus on the design of the biocompatible scaffold and their relevant biomedical applications. The prospective regarding of the future potential development in functional and smart aspects is also delivered.