Open AccessDetecting and Monitoring Hydrogels with Medical Imaging
Author(s) -
Yuxi C. Dong,
Mathilde Bouché,
Selen Uman,
Jason A. Burdick,
David P. Cormode
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acs biomaterials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.082
H-Index - 50
ISSN - 2373-9878
DOI - 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.0c01547
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , biomedical engineering , drug delivery , magnetic resonance imaging , materials science , medical imaging , tissue engineering , preclinical imaging , nanotechnology , optical imaging , in vivo , computer science , radiology , medicine , artificial intelligence , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , optics , biology , polymer chemistry
Hydrogels, water-swollen polymer networks, are being applied to numerous biomedical applications, such as drug delivery and tissue engineering, due to their potential tunable rheologic properties, injectability into tissues, and encapsulation and release of therapeutics. Despite their promise, it is challenging to assess their properties in vivo and crucial information such as hydrogel retention at the site of administration and in situ degradation kinetics are often lacking. To address this, technologies to evaluate and track hydrogels in vivo with various imaging techniques have been developed in recent years, including hydrogels functionalized with contrast generating material that can be imaged with methods such as X-ray computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical imaging, and nuclear imaging systems. In this review, we will discuss emerging approaches to label hydrogels for imaging, review the advantages and limitations of these imaging techniques, and highlight examples where such techniques have been implemented in biomedical applications.