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Stimuli‐Responsive Hydrogels Based on Polysaccharides Incorporated with Thermo‐Responsive Polymers as Novel Biomaterials
Author(s) -
Prabaharan Mani,
Mano João F.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.200600164
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , biocompatibility , drug delivery , tissue engineering , chitosan , smart polymer , polymer , materials science , swelling , nanotechnology , biomedical engineering , chemistry , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , composite material , metallurgy , medicine
Summary: In recent years, intelligent hydrogels which can change their swelling behavior and other properties in response to environmental stimuli such as temperature, pH, solvent composition and electric fields, have attracted great interest. The hydrogels based on polysaccharides incorporated with thermo‐responsive polymers have shown unique properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and biological functions in addition to the stimuli‐responsive characters. These “smart” hydrogels exhibit single or multiple stimuli‐responsive characters which could be used in biomedical applications, including controlled drug delivery, bioengineering or tissue engineering. This review focuses on the recent developments and future trends dealing with stimuli‐responsive hydrogels based on grafting/blending of polysaccharides such as chitosan, alginate, cellulose, dextran and their derivatives with thermo‐sensitive polymers. This review also screens the current applications of these hydrogels in the fields of drug delivery, tissue engineering and wound healing.Synthesis scheme for the SA/PNIPAAm semi‐IPN hydrogel.