Hydrogels are promising biomaterials because of their important qualities such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, hydrophilicity and non-toxicity. These qualities make hydrogels suitable for application in medical and pharmaceutical field. Recently, a tremendous growth of hydrogel application is seen, especially as gel and patch form, in transdermal drug delivery. This review mainly focuses...

In the application areas of polymer hydrogels, precise information on their molecular constitution as well as their elastic properties is required. Several interesting molecular features control the elastic properties of the hydrogels. In this chapter, we describe general properties of hydrogels formed by free-radical crosslinking copolymerization of vinyl/divinyl monomers in aqueous solutions....

91 Biodegradable haemostats [Absorbable gelatin sponges] and Hydrogels are a part of modern wound management systems. Development of absorbable gelatin sponges, drug loaded sponges, hydrogels and drug loaded hydrogels for advanced wound management was investigated in this research project. The developed formulations were evaluated to determine their potential for advanced wound management as de...

Degradable and injectable hydrogels may be ideal for bone-tissue engineering, especially in the craniofacial region because of the ease of access for injection. Alginate hydrogels potentially could be used as injectable cell delivery vehicles, but they exhibit a limited range of mechanical properties and uncontrollable disintegration time. Therefore we synthesized new hydrogels, composed of pol...

Acylated xylan-based magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite hydrogels (ACX-MNP-gels) were prepared by fabricating Fe₃O₄ nanoctahedra in situ within a hydrogel matrix which was synthesized by the copolymerization of acylated xylan (ACX) with acrylamide and N-isopropylacrylamide under ultraviolet irradiation. The size of the Fe₃O₄ fabricated within the hydrogel matrix could be adjusted through controlling ...

Hydrogels are crosslinked polymers with the ability to swell in an aqueous medium. Crosslinking in hydrogels occurs by chemical or physical means depending on the polymer properties and experimental conditions. Owing to a large variety in chemical structure and crosslinking methods, various hydrogels have been prepared for various applications in pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. This chapt...

The development of hydrogel-based biomaterials represents a promising approach to generating new strategies for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In order to develop more sophisticated cell-seeded hydrogel constructs, it is important to understand how cells mechanically interact with hydrogels. In this paper, we review the mechanisms by which cells remodel hydrogels, the influence t...

Polyacrylamide (PAM) was used as a matrix material for fabricating novel nanocomposite hydrogels reinforced with natural chitosan nanofibers (CNFs) via in situ free-radical polymerization. The nanocomposite's structure, strength, morphology and rheological properties were investigated. The results showed that the CNFs had a strong interaction with PAM through hydrogen and covalent bondings. The...

Cellulose hydrogels with quaternary ammonium (QA) groups were prepared via the etherification and cross-linking reaction. The structure of the functional hydrogels with QA groups was confirmed with FT-IR. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis indicated that there was a large amount of free water in the hydrogels. The hydrogels showed salt-sensitivity behavior, and they also exhibited...

The influence of aluminosilicates on the structure and drug release profiles of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) – halloysite (HNT) hydrogels containing acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) as a model drug was monitored. The hydrogels were synthesized using a three cycle freeze – thawing procedure and were characterized by FTIR, XRD and SEM. The swelling degree and cytotoxicity were also determined. All hydrogels...