Supramolecular Hydrogels for Protein Delivery in Tissue Engineering
School of Engineering and Materials Science, Institute of Bioengineering, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Silvia Marchesan
Molecules 2021, 26(4), 873; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26040873
Received: 29 December 2020
/
Revised: 31 January 2021
/
Accepted: 3 February 2021
/
Published: 7 February 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine)
Therapeutic proteins, such as growth factors (GFs), have been used in tissue engineering (TE) approaches for their ability to provide signals to cells and orchestrate the formation of functional tissue. However, to be effective and minimize off-target effects, GFs should be delivered at the target site with temporal control. In addition, protein drugs are typically sensitive water soluble macromolecules with delicate structure. As such, hydrogels, containing large amounts of water, provide a compatible environment for the direct incorporation of proteins within the hydrogel network, while their release rate can be tuned by engineering the network chemistry and density. Being formed by transient crosslinks, afforded by non-covalent interactions, supramolecular hydrogels offer important advantages for protein delivery applications. This review describes various types of supramolecular hydrogels using a repertoire of diverse building blocks, their use for protein delivery and their further application in TE contexts. By reviewing the recent literature on this topic, the merits of supramolecular hydrogels are highlighted as well as their limitations, with high expectations for new advances they will provide for TE in the near future.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
supramolecular interactions; hydrogels; injectable; stimuli-responsive; controlled release; proteins drugs; tissue engineering
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Lyu, Y.; Azevedo, H.S. Supramolecular Hydrogels for Protein Delivery in Tissue Engineering. Molecules 2021, 26, 873. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26040873
AMA Style
Lyu Y, Azevedo HS. Supramolecular Hydrogels for Protein Delivery in Tissue Engineering. Molecules. 2021; 26(4):873. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26040873
Chicago/Turabian StyleLyu, Yaqi, and Helena S. Azevedo 2021. "Supramolecular Hydrogels for Protein Delivery in Tissue Engineering" Molecules 26, no. 4: 873. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26040873
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
