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Gels
Special Issues
Biopolymer-Based Gels for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering
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Biopolymer-Based Gels for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering

A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2024 | Viewed by 3804

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yordanka Uzunova

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Plovdiv, 4002 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Interests: biopolymers; microgels; chitosan; casein; targeted drug delivery
Dr. Bissera Pilicheva

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Plovdiv, 4002 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Interests: biopolymers; chitosan; casein; micro gels; targeted drug delivery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Yunlong Wu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Target Research and State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
Interests: biomaterials; hydrogel; drug delivery; gene delivery; polymeric materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the development of new materials for biomedical applications has received much attention. The discovery and development of advanced gel-forming polymers is essential to address the challenges of drug delivery and tissue engineering. Natural polymers, polysaccharides, proteins, and nucleic acids show remarkable structural and functional characteristics such as biocompatibility and biodegradability. Furthermore, they demonstrate a reduced capacity to induce tissue inflammatory responses; therefore, they are considered suitable for various biomedical applications, mostly in the form of gels.

Such gels have been investigated for their potential to be used in drug delivery, wound healing, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Using a rational molecular design, gels can be optimised to respond to environmental stimuli such as pH, temperature, cells redox potential, etc. Due to their biodegradability, these gels can release the pharmacological load in a controlled manner in target cells or tissues, therefore promoting improved therapeutic effects. Using engineering approaches, gels can be modified to obtain tailor-made materials with a significantly improved mechanical strength for tissue regeneration.

We invite you to publish your research articles and reviews in this Special Issue of Gels entitled “Biopolymer-Based Gels for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering”. We believe that the publications in this Special Issue will allow important contributions to be made in terms of the advancement of scientific knowledge in the field of natural polymer-based hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Dr. Yordanka Uzunova
Dr. Bissera Pilicheva
Prof. Dr. Yunlong Wu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • polysaccharides
  • proteins
  • biopolymers
  • gel development
  • gel evaluation
  • formulation optimization
  • gels in cancer therapy
  • tissue engineering

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 4654 KiB  
Article
Fibrin-Based Hydrogels with Reactive Amphiphilic Copolymers for Mechanical Adjustments Allow for Capillary Formation in 2D and 3D Environments
by Svenja Wein, Carina Schemmer, Miriam Aischa Al Enezy-Ulbrich, Shannon Anna Jung, Stephan Rütten, Mark Kühnel, Danny Jonigk, Wilhelm Jahnen-Dechent, Andrij Pich and Sabine Neuss
Gels 2024, 10(3), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels10030182 - 6 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1063
Abstract
This study focuses on enhancing controllable fibrin-based hydrogels for tissue engineering, addressing existing weaknesses. By integrating a novel copolymer, we improved the foundation for cell-based angiogenesis with adaptable structural features. Tissue engineering often faces challenges like waste disposal and nutrient supply beyond the [...] Read more.
This study focuses on enhancing controllable fibrin-based hydrogels for tissue engineering, addressing existing weaknesses. By integrating a novel copolymer, we improved the foundation for cell-based angiogenesis with adaptable structural features. Tissue engineering often faces challenges like waste disposal and nutrient supply beyond the 200 µm diffusion limit. Angiogenesis breaks through this limitation, allowing the construction of larger constructs. Our innovative scaffold combination significantly boosts angiogenesis, resulting in longer branches and more capillary network junctions. The copolymer attached to fibrin fibers enables precise adjustment of hydrogel mechanical dynamic properties for specific applications. Our material proves effective for angiogenesis, even under suppression factors like suramin. In our study, we prepared fibrin-based hydrogels with and without the copolymer PVP12400-co-GMA10mol%. Using a co-culture system of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), we analyzed angiogenetic behavior on and within the modified hydrogels. Capillary-like structures were reproducibly formed on different surfaces, demonstrating the general feasibility of three-dimensional endothelial cell networks in fibrin-based hydrogels. This highlights the biomaterial’s suitability for in vitro pre-vascularization of biohybrid implants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biopolymer-Based Gels for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering)
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14 pages, 5205 KiB  
Article
Composite Hydrogel Modulates Intrinsic Immune-Cascade Neovascularization for Ocular Surface Reconstruction after Corneal Chemical Injury
by Jun Zhang, Kun Xi, Guohua Deng, Xi Zou and Peirong Lu
Gels 2023, 9(9), 676; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels9090676 - 22 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 992
Abstract
Ocular alkali burns recruit neutrophils and triggers neutrophil extracellular trap (NET)-neovascularization cascade effects that limit ocular surface reconstruction and functional repair. However, effective inhibition of the release of neutrophil extracellular traps after a corneal chemical injury, coordination of intrinsic immunity with corneal repair, [...] Read more.
Ocular alkali burns recruit neutrophils and triggers neutrophil extracellular trap (NET)-neovascularization cascade effects that limit ocular surface reconstruction and functional repair. However, effective inhibition of the release of neutrophil extracellular traps after a corneal chemical injury, coordination of intrinsic immunity with corneal repair, and exploration of more effective and non-invasive drug-delivery modes are still urgently needed. Using an in vitro coculture system, we found that an alkaline environment stimulates neutrophils to release NETs, which can be regulated by deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I). Inspired by this, we loaded DNase I, which effectively regulates NETs, onto chitosan nanoparticles and combined them with silk fibroin to construct a composite hydrogel that can sustainably regulate NETs. The hydrogel reduced neutrophil extracellular trap production by 50% and neovascularization by approximately 70% through sustained DNase I release after a corneal alkali burn. The complex hydrogel promotes ocular surface reconstruction by modulating the intrinsic immune-cascade neovascularization effect, providing a new research basis for the construction of nanobiomaterials that modulate pathological neovascularization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biopolymer-Based Gels for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering)
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Review

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19 pages, 8547 KiB  
Review
Engineered Dynamic Hydrogel Niches for the Regulation of Redox Homeostasis in Osteoporosis and Degenerative Endocrine Diseases
by Weihao Yuan, Jiankun Xu, Na Yang, Han Wang, Jinteng Li, Mengyao Zhang and Meiling Zhu
Gels 2024, 10(1), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels10010031 - 30 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1292
Abstract
Osteoporosis and degenerative endocrine diseases are some of the major causes of disability in the elderly. The feedback loop in the endocrine system works to control the release of hormones and maintain the homeostasis of metabolism, thereby regulating the function of target organs. [...] Read more.
Osteoporosis and degenerative endocrine diseases are some of the major causes of disability in the elderly. The feedback loop in the endocrine system works to control the release of hormones and maintain the homeostasis of metabolism, thereby regulating the function of target organs. The breakdown of this feedback loop results in various endocrine and metabolic disorders, such as osteoporosis, type II diabetes, hyperlipidemia, etc. The direct regulation of redox homeostasis is one of the most attractive strategies to redress the imbalance of the feedback loop. The biophysical regulation of redox homeostasis can be achieved through engineered dynamic hydrogel niches, with which cellular mechanics and redox homeostasis are intrinsically connected. Mechanotransduction-dependent redox signaling is initiated by cell surface protein assemblies, cadherins for cell–cell junctions, and integrins for cell–ECM interactions. In this review, we focused on the biophysical regulation of redox homeostasis via the tunable cell–ECM interactions in the engineered dynamic hydrogel niches. We elucidate processes from the rational design of the hydrogel matrix to the mechano-signaling initiation and then to the redox response of the encapsulated cells. We also gave a comprehensive summary of the current biomedical applications of this strategy in several degenerative endocrine disease models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biopolymer-Based Gels for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Emerging Trend: Bioaerogel platform for respiratory drug delivery
Authors: Hao-Ying Li, Ben Forbes, Charalampos Makatsoris
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