Hydrogels with Advanced Functionalities for Application in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to bioengineers developing new hydrogels with advanced functionalities for application in the regenerative medicine and tissue engineering fields.

Hydrogels are biomaterials of reference in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; they are a tridimensional network of crosslinked polymer chains which, due to the hydrophilic nature of the polymers, retain high water amounts. The water content allows the natural diffusion of molecules within the hydrogels, providing them with a soft mechanical appearance. These features, closely resembling the characteristics of the extracellular matrix of tissues, have attracted bioengineers to use hydrogels for biomedical purposes, e.g., as sustained-release drug depots or for cell encapsulation. Since then, first-generation hydrogels with varied physical–chemical, mechanical and biological properties have appeared through the tailoring of polymer(s) type(s) and amount, or by varying the processing method. The swiftly evolving field of biotechnology triggered the development of more advanced hydrogels, enabling the occurrence of a boost in tissue engineering upon the biofunctionalization of hydrogels with cell-adhesive sites (e.g., RGD sequence) for improved adhesion, by tethering growth factors to stimulate a specific response (e.g., FGF-2 to enhance proliferation) or by adding metalloproteinase-sensitive degradation sites for cell-mediated remodeling. The control of hydrogels’ rheological and mechanical properties came to be of particular interest since the revolution of 3D bioprinting, with the demand for adequate rheological properties for printing and a sol–gel transition postprinting. Smart, stimuli-responsive hydrogels capable of responding to a stimulus (e.g., temperature, pH, magnetic or electric fields) with a specific behavior (e.g., softening, swelling or molecule release) also present a great potential as biosensors. All these frontline strategies enrich the current state-of-the-art of hydrogels and bring new opportunities to the regenerative medicine and tissue engineering fields. We welcome submissions in this exciting field and look forward to learning the knowledge these new works will provide.

Dr. Lucília P. da Silva
Dr. Alexandra P. Marques
Prof. Dr. Rui L. Reis
Guest Editors

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