Issue 27, 2023

Supramolecular assemblies of multifunctional microgels for biomedical applications

Abstract

Biomedical materials with outstanding biochemical and mechanical properties have great potential in tissue engineering, drug delivery, antibacterial, and implantable devices. Hydrogels have emerged as a most promising family of biomedical materials because of their high water content, low modulus, biomimetic network structures, and versatile biofunctionalities. It is critical to design and synthesize biomimetic and biofunctional hydrogels to meet demands of biomedical applications. Moreover, fabrication of hydrogel-based biomedical devices and scaffolds remains a great challenge, largely due to the poor processibility of the crosslinked networks. Supramolecular microgels have emerged as building blocks for fabrication of biofunctional materials for biomedical applications due to their excellent characteristics, including softness, micron size, high porosity, heterogeneity and degradability. Moreover, microgels can serve as vehicles to carry drugs, bio-factors, and even cells to augment the biofunctionalities to support or regulate cell growth and tissue regeneration. This review article summarizes the fabrication and the mechanism of supramolecular assemblies of microgels, and explores their application in 3D printing, along with detailed representative biomedical applications of microgel assemblies in cell culture, drug delivery, antibacterial and tissue engineering. Major challenges and perspectives of supramolecular microgel assemblies are presented to indicate future research directions.

Graphical abstract: Supramolecular assemblies of multifunctional microgels for biomedical applications

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
17 fev 2023
Accepted
18 may 2023
First published
22 may 2023

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023,11, 6265-6289

Supramolecular assemblies of multifunctional microgels for biomedical applications

J. Zheng, C. Zhu, X. Xu, X. Wang and J. Fu, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023, 11, 6265 DOI: 10.1039/D3TB00346A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements