Recent advances in smart-responsive hydrogels for tissue repairing

Abstract

The rapid development of biomedical materials and tissue engineering technology has played an increasingly important role in the process of tissue repair in recent years. Smart-responsive hydrogels are three-dimensional network structures formed by cross-linking of hydrophilic polymers. In addition to having conventional hydrogels that approximate the natural extracellular matrix structure and serve as delivery vehicles for functional molecules (drugs and proteins). More importantly, smart-responsive hydrogels can achieve relevant changes in material morphology or properties under the conditions of changes in physical, chemical, and biological factors, thereby achieving controlled functional molecules release. It is more urgent to design and build smart-responsive hydrogels to achieve precise tissue repair with the introduction of the concept of precision medicine and drug delivery. In this review, we highlight different types of smart-responsive hydrogels and their mechanisms of response to different stimuli and discuss their potential for application in different types of tissue repair, such as chronic wound repair, damaged heart tissue repair, brain nerve tissue repair, and other fields. Finally, we present the prospects of smart-responsive hydrogels in tissue repair. In general, the current progress in the application of smart-responsive hydrogels in tissue repair lays the foundation for future applications in other diseases.