Advanced Hydrogels as Cell Supportive Matrices: Potential Applications for Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

As a result of population aging, degenerative musculoskeletal diseases such as sarcopenia, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and enthesopathy have become important public health issues, and development or discovery of novel regenerative therapies to facilitate musculoskeletal repair or regeneration has significant clinical demand. Tissue engineering has been considered as a promising approach to generate functional tissue constructs that restore, replace, maintain or improve damaged musculoskeletal tissues. Fabrication of engineered tissue constructs involves the process of integrating functional cells (stem/progenitor cells or differentiated cells) and specific biological signals within a supportive biomaterial matrix. Hydrogels are a category of biomaterials that are widely used as cell-supportive matrices to generate functional engineered musculoskeletal tissues.

This Special Issue on “Advanced Hydrogels as Cell Supportive Matrices for Musculoskeletal Tissue engineering and Regenerative Medicine” is dedicated to recent progress in the development of novel hydrogels that can serve as cell-supportive matrices to generate functional engineered musculoskeletal tissues, organoid or biochips. These engineered musculoskeletal tissues or structures could potentially be used as medical products for musculoskeletal tissue repair or regeneration, or as an experimental platform for musculoskeletal disease modelling, drug screening or toxicity testing.

We welcome the submission of new concepts and results of advanced hydrogels focusing on, but not limited to, hydrogel strategy and synthesis, physical–chemical and mechanical characterisation of hydrogels, stem and immune cell-hydrogel interactions and modulation, and engineered tissue construct-host tissue integration or functional engraftment in pre-clinical or clinical settings related to musculoskeletal tissue repair or regeneration. This Special Issue will stimulate new research and discoveries in the field of hydrogels to facilitate the discovery of novel approaches for musculoskeletal tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Chao Wan
Dr. Jonathan Dawson
Dr. Fei Sun
Dr. Hon Fai Chan
Dr. Bo Zheng
Guest Editors

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