Smart Hydrogels for Advanced Drug Delivery Systems

Since the last few decades, the development of smart hydrogels, which can respond to stimuli and adapt their responses based on external cues from their environments, has become a thriving research frontier in the biomedical engineering field. Nowadays, drug delivery systems have received great atte...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Aydin Bordbar-Khiabani, Michael Gasik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-03-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/7/3665
Description
Summary:Since the last few decades, the development of smart hydrogels, which can respond to stimuli and adapt their responses based on external cues from their environments, has become a thriving research frontier in the biomedical engineering field. Nowadays, drug delivery systems have received great attention and smart hydrogels can be potentially used in these systems due to their high stability, physicochemical properties, and biocompatibility. Smart hydrogels can change their hydrophilicity, swelling ability, physical properties, and molecules permeability, influenced by external stimuli such as pH, temperature, electrical and magnetic fields, light, and the biomolecules’ concentration, thus resulting in the controlled release of the loaded drugs. Herein, this review encompasses the latest investigations in the field of stimuli-responsive drug-loaded hydrogels and our contribution to this matter.
ISSN:1661-6596
1422-0067