Faculty of Advanced Life Science and Global Station for Soft Matter, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GSS, GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan; email:
Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD), Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan.
Annu Rev Chem Biomol Eng. 2021 Jun 7;12:393-410. doi: 10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-101220-080338. Epub 2021 Mar 26.
Soft and wet hydrogels have many similarities to biological tissues, though their mechanical fragility had been one of the biggest obstacles in biomedical applications. Studies and developments in double network (DN) hydrogels have elucidated how to create tough gels universally based on sacrificial bond principles and opened a path for biomedical application of hydrogels in regenerative medicine and artificial soft connective tissues, such as cartilage, tendon, and ligament, which endure high tension and compression. This review explores a universal toughening mechanism for and biomedical studies of DN hydrogels. Moreover, because the term sacrificial bonds has been mentioned often in studies of bone tissues, consisting of biomacromolecules and biominerals, recent studies of gel-biomineral composites to understand early-stage osteogenesis and to simulate bony sacrificial bonds are also summarized.
软湿水凝胶与生物组织有许多相似之处，但机械脆弱性一直是其在生物医学应用中的最大障碍之一。双网络（DN）水凝胶的研究和发展阐明了如何基于牺牲键原理创建普遍坚韧的凝胶，并为水凝胶在再生医学和人工软结缔组织中的生物医学应用开辟了道路，例如软骨、肌腱和韧带，它们承受着高张力和压缩。本综述探讨了 DN 水凝胶的通用增韧机制和生物医学研究。此外，由于在由生物大分子和生物矿物质组成的骨组织研究中经常提到牺牲键，因此还总结了最近关于凝胶-生物矿物质复合材料的研究，以了解早期成骨和模拟骨牺牲键。
