Choi Cholong, Yun Eunhye, Cha Chaenyung
Center for Programmable Matter, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea.
Macromol Biosci. 2023 Dec;23(12):e2300222. doi: 10.1002/mabi.202300222. Epub 2023 Aug 13.
Hydrogels and nanofibers have been firmly established as go-to materials for various biomedical applications. They have been mostly utilized separately, rarely together, because of their distinctive attributes and shortcomings. However, the potential benefits of integrating nanofibers with hydrogels to synergistically combine their functionalities while attenuating their drawbacks are increasingly recognized. Compared to other nanocomposite materials, incorporating nanofibers into hydrogel has the distinct advantage of emulating the hierarchical structure of natural extracellular environment needed for cell and tissue culture. The most important technological aspect of developing "nanofiber-composite hydrogel" is generating nanofibers made of various polymers that are cross-linked and short enough to maintain stable dispersion in hydrated environment. In this review, recent research efforts to develop nanofiber-composite hydrogels are presented, with added emphasis on nanofiber processing techniques. Several notable examples of implementing nanofiber-composite hydrogels for biomedical applications are also introduced.
水凝胶和纳米纤维已被牢固地确立为各种生物医学应用的首选材料。由于它们独特的属性和缺点，它们大多被单独使用，很少一起使用。然而，将纳米纤维与水凝胶整合以协同结合其功能同时减轻其缺点的潜在益处越来越受到认可。与其他纳米复合材料相比，将纳米纤维掺入水凝胶具有模拟细胞和组织培养所需的天然细胞外环境的层次结构的明显优势。开发“纳米纤维复合水凝胶”最重要的技术方面是生成由各种聚合物制成的纳米纤维，这些纳米纤维交联且足够短，以在水合环境中保持稳定的分散。在这篇综述中，介绍了开发纳米纤维复合水凝胶的最新研究成果，并特别强调了纳米纤维加工技术。还介绍了几个将纳米纤维复合水凝胶用于生物医学应用的显著例子。
