Department of Developmental Bioengineering, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia.
J Mater Chem B. 2024 Jun 12;12(23):5571-5572. doi: 10.1039/d4tb90085e.
Injectable hydrogels have emerged as intelligent and versatile materials that have been proven to possess huge potential for many biomedical applications including drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Hydrogels are a class of polymers with highly hydrated 3D networks that have microenvironmental properties such as oxygen/nutrient permeability that are similar to the native extracellular matrix. In addition to possessing the typical advantages of conventional hydrogels, injectable hydrogels offer extra unique features, enabling minimally invasive injectability and durability for irregularly shaped sites, and the possibility of processing these materials , , additive manufacturing techniques. As such, there has been a growing interest in using injectable hydrogels as scaffolds/carriers for therapeutic agents, including but not limited to drugs, cells, proteins, and bioactive molecules, targeted to treat chronic diseases including cancer, but also to facilitate the repair and regeneration of damaged organs/tissues. In this themed collection of and , we include outstanding contributions covering recent developments in this rapidly evolving field of injectable hydrogels including emerging chemistries, synthesis pathways, fabrication methods, cell-material interaction, , and performances, and subsequent targeted applications (drug delivery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine) of injectable hydrogels.
水凝胶已成为一种智能且多功能的材料，已被证明在许多生物医学应用中具有巨大的潜力，包括药物输送、组织工程和再生医学。水凝胶是一类具有高度水合三维网络的聚合物，具有类似于天然细胞外基质的微环境特性，如氧气/营养物通透性。除了具有传统水凝胶的典型优势外，可注射水凝胶还具有额外的独特特性，可实现针对不规则形状部位的微创可注射性和耐用性，并且有可能对这些材料进行加工，例如，通过增材制造技术。因此，人们越来越感兴趣地将可注射水凝胶用作治疗剂（包括但不限于药物、细胞、蛋白质和生物活性分子）的支架/载体，以靶向治疗包括癌症在内的慢性疾病，同时促进受损器官/组织的修复和再生。在这一主题的 和 中，我们收录了杰出的贡献，涵盖了可注射水凝胶这一快速发展领域的最新进展，包括新兴化学、合成途径、制造方法、细胞-材料相互作用、性能以及随后的靶向应用（药物输送、组织工程和再生医学）。
