Hydrogel in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogels form the foundation of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as a supportive matrix for cell immobilization and growth factor delivery. Hydrogels, due to their wide range of properties, have been used as injectable, in situ gelling, or patterned matrices; viscous gels; thin sheets; and three-dimensional scaffolds in regenerative medicine to guide and regulate cell fate. It has been widely established that the fate of implanted cells is mediated by cell–matrix and matrix–morphogen interactions at multiple length scales from nano- to macroscale. The fate of multicellular implants depends on the timed release of growth factors to guide the differentiation and maturation of cells toward the desired lineage for each cell type. As a result, there has recently been a great interest in hydrogels with hierarchical structures that mimic the complex interaction of cells with their microenvironment at multiple length scales as well as hydrogels that can locally target growth factors to specific cells at predefined time scales. Related topics for this Topical Collection include hydrogels with a hierarchical structure; self-assembled hydrogels; hybrid and degradable hydrogels; load-bearing and self-healing hydrogels; hydrogels for cell encapsulation and biofabrication; hydrogels for patterning and microfluidic devices and high-throughput screening; injectable and in situ hardening hydrogels for minimally invasive applications; hydrogels that modulate the body’s immune response; and hydrogels for the spatiotemporal delivery of growth factors.

Prof. Dr. Esmaiel Jabbari
Collection Editor

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