Recent Advances on Functional Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogels

A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 14306

Special Issue Editors

School of Pharmacy, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, China
Interests: nanomaterials; polymers; antibacterial materials; hydrogels
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Guest Editor
School of Pharmacy, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, China
Interests: antimicrobial hydrogel; drug delivery for infectious diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Institute of Advanced Interdisciplinary Science, School of Physics, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Interests: antimicrobial hydrogel; nanozyme; nanobiosensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogels as the three-dimensional (3D) networks of cross-linked hydrophilic polymer chains have been reported to be one of the ideal carriers for the delivery of various materials ranging from drugs to cells. In recent years, the wide application of hydrogels in biomedical fields, including tissue engineering and wound healing, also reveals the versatile potential of this carrier in different fields. It has been generally recognized as stimuli-responsive carriers showing better performance than traditional ones due to their controllable cargo release behavior. Therefore, in recent decades, the development of responsive carriers that respond to multiple stimuli, including pH, enzyme, glutathione (GSH), or even additional laser irradiation, has been a research hotspot among scientists, especially in the field of cancer management. The development of functional stimuli-responsive hydrogels also becomes an important part of this research trend, and many novel and exciting studies are emerging, worthy of being introduced to the scientific community.

Therefore, the goal of this Special Issue is to introduce recent advances in functional stimuli-responsive hydrogels. We aim to offer readers insights into frontier developments in this field by presenting select high-quality studies. This Special Issue will feature recent advances in hydrogels that employ both natural and artificial stimuli to control the release of cargos to provide a better performance. Manuscripts that address the joint application of hydrogels with other novel materials, such as cell-based materials (including cell membranes and stem cells) or the application of stimuli-responsive hydrogels in new biomedical fields, are especially welcome.

Dr. Lin Qiu
Prof. Dr. Jianhao Wang
Prof. Dr. Yongqiang Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • hydrogel
  • functional
  • stimuli-responsive
  • tissue engineering
  • wound healing
  • drug release

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 3254 KiB  
Article
Temperature-Ion-pH Triple Responsive Gellan Gum as In Situ Hydrogel for Long-Acting Cancer Treatment
by Shuwen Zhou, Xinmeng Zheng, Ke Yi, Xuancheng Du, Cheng Wang, Pengfei Cui, Pengju Jiang, Xinye Ni, Lin Qiu and Jianhao Wang
Gels 2022, 8(8), 508; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels8080508 - 15 Aug 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1946
Abstract
Background: Promising cancer chemotherapy requires the development of suitable drug delivery systems (DDSs). Previous research has indicated that a hydrogel is a powerful DDS for tumor therapy and holds great potential to offer a feasible method for cancer management. Methods: In this study, [...] Read more.
Background: Promising cancer chemotherapy requires the development of suitable drug delivery systems (DDSs). Previous research has indicated that a hydrogel is a powerful DDS for tumor therapy and holds great potential to offer a feasible method for cancer management. Methods: In this study, glutathione-gellan gum conjugate (GSH-GG) was synthesized through chemical reaction. Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was loaded into GSH-GG to accomplish DOX-loaded GSH-GG. The properties, injectability, drug release, and in vitro and in vivo anticancer effects of DOX-loaded GSH-GG were tested. Results: DOX-loaded GSH-GG showed a temperature-ion dual responsive gelling property with good viscosity, strength, and injectability at an optimized gel concentration of 1.5%. In addition, lower drug release was found under acidic conditions, offering beneficial long-acting drug release in the tumor microenvironment. DOX-loaded GSH-GG presented selective action by exerting substantially higher cytotoxicity on cancer cells (4T1) than on normal epithelial cells (L929), signifying the potential of complete inhibition of tumor progression, without affecting the health quality of the subjects. Conclusions: GSH-GG can be applied as a responsive gelling material for delivering DOX for promising cancer therapy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances on Functional Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogels)
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14 pages, 4906 KiB  
Article
Fast Gelation of Poly(ionic liquid)-Based Injectable Antibacterial Hydrogels
by Che Zhao, Chengju Sheng and Chao Zhou
Gels 2022, 8(1), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels8010052 - 12 Jan 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2773
Abstract
Traditional antibacterial hydrogels have a broad-spectrum bactericidal effect and are widely used as wound dressings. However, the biological toxicity and drug resistance of these antibacterial hydrogels cannot meet the requirements of long-term clinical application. Imidazolium poly(ionic liquids) (PILs) are polymeric antibacterial agents exhibiting [...] Read more.
Traditional antibacterial hydrogels have a broad-spectrum bactericidal effect and are widely used as wound dressings. However, the biological toxicity and drug resistance of these antibacterial hydrogels cannot meet the requirements of long-term clinical application. Imidazolium poly(ionic liquids) (PILs) are polymeric antibacterial agents exhibiting strong antibacterial properties, as they contain a strong positive charge. In this study, two imidazolium PILs, namely poly(N-butylimidazolium propiolic acid sodium) (PBP) and poly(N-(3,6-dioxaoctane) imidazolium propiolic acid sodium) (PDP), as high efficiency antibacterial agents, were synthesized by polycondensation reaction. Then, the PILs were compounded with polyethylene glycol (PEG) by a thiol-yne click reaction to prepare injectable antibacterial hydrogels. An in vitro assay showed that the injectable antibacterial hydrogels could not only quickly kill Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), but also had low toxicity for human skin fibroblasts cells (HSFs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), respectively. Additionally, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) inflammation model revealed that the injectable antibacterial hydrogels also had anti-inflammatory effects, which would be advantageous to accelerate wound healing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances on Functional Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogels)
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Review

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29 pages, 4256 KiB  
Review
Hydrogels for Antitumor and Antibacterial Therapy
by Xiuling Fang, Cheng Wang, Shuwen Zhou, Pengfei Cui, Huaanzi Hu, Xinye Ni, Pengju Jiang and Jianhao Wang
Gels 2022, 8(5), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels8050315 - 19 May 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3370
Abstract
As a highly absorbent and hydrophobic material with a three-dimensional network structure, hydrogels are widely used in biomedical fields for their excellent biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, adjustable physicochemical properties, ability to encapsulate a variety of drugs, controllability, and degradability. Hydrogels can be used not [...] Read more.
As a highly absorbent and hydrophobic material with a three-dimensional network structure, hydrogels are widely used in biomedical fields for their excellent biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, adjustable physicochemical properties, ability to encapsulate a variety of drugs, controllability, and degradability. Hydrogels can be used not only for wound dressings and tissue repair, but also as drug carriers for the treatment of tumors. As multifunctional hydrogels are the focus for many researchers, this review focuses on hydrogels for antitumor therapy, hydrogels for antibacterial therapy, and hydrogels for co-use in tumor therapy and bacterial infection. We highlighted the advantages and representative applications of hydrogels in these fields and also outlined the shortages and future orientations of this useful tool, which might give inspirations for future studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances on Functional Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogels)
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21 pages, 1403 KiB  
Review
Advanced Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Cartilage Tissue Engineering
by Jianghong Huang, Fei Liu, Haijing Su, Jianyi Xiong, Lei Yang, Jiang Xia and Yujie Liang
Gels 2022, 8(2), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels8020138 - 21 Feb 2022
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5347
Abstract
Tissue engineering is becoming an effective strategy for repairing cartilage damage. Synthesized nanocomposite hydrogels mimic the structure of natural cartilage extracellular matrices (ECMs), are biocompatible, and exhibit nano–bio effects in response to external stimuli. These inherent characteristics make nanocomposite hydrogels promising scaffold materials [...] Read more.
Tissue engineering is becoming an effective strategy for repairing cartilage damage. Synthesized nanocomposite hydrogels mimic the structure of natural cartilage extracellular matrices (ECMs), are biocompatible, and exhibit nano–bio effects in response to external stimuli. These inherent characteristics make nanocomposite hydrogels promising scaffold materials for cartilage tissue engineering. This review summarizes the advances made in the field of nanocomposite hydrogels for artificial cartilage. We discuss, in detail, their preparation methods and scope of application. The challenges involved for the application of hydrogel nanocomposites for cartilage repair are also highlighted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances on Functional Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogels)
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