Conductive Ionic Liquid/Chitosan Hydrogels for Neuronal Cell Differentiation

Conductive Hyaluronic Acid/Deep Eutectic Solvent Composite Hydrogel as a Wound Dressing for Promoting Skin Burn Healing Under Electrical Stimulation

Burns can cause severe damage to the skin due to bacterial infection and severe inflammation. Although conductive hydrogels as electroactive burn-wound dressings achieve remarkable effects on accelerating wound healing, issues such as imbalance between their high conductivity and mechanical properties, easy dehydration, and low transparency must be addressed. Herein, a double-network conductive eutectogel is fabricated by integrating polymerizable deep eutectic solvents (PDESs)including acrylamide/choline chloride/glycerol (acrylamide-polymerization crosslink) and thiolated hyaluronic acid (disulfide-bonding crosslink). The introduction of PDESs provides the eutectogel with a conductivity (up to 0.25 S·m-1) and mechanical strength (tensile strain of 59-77%) simulating those of natural human skin, as well as satisfactory tissue adhesiveness, self-healing ability, and antibacterial properties. When combined with exogenous electrical stimulation, the conductive eutectogel exhibits the ability to reduce inflammation, stimulate cell proliferation and migration, promote collagen deposition and angiogenesis, and facilitate skin tissue remodeling. This conductive eutectogel shows great potential as a dressing for healing major burn wounds.

Green approaches for extraction, chemical modification and processing of marine polysaccharides for biomedical applications

Over the past few decades, natural-origin polysaccharides have received increasing attention across different fields of application, including biomedicine and biotechnology, because of their specific physicochemical and biological properties that have afforded the fabrication of a plethora of multifunctional devices for healthcare applications. More recently, marine raw materials from fisheries and aquaculture have emerged as a highly sustainable approach to convert marine biomass into added-value polysaccharides for human benefit. Nowadays, significant efforts have been made to combine such circular bio-based approach with cost-effective and environmentally-friendly technologies that enable the isolation of marine-origin polysaccharides up to the final construction of a biomedical device, thus developing an entirely sustainable pipeline. In this regard, the present review intends to provide an up-to-date outlook on the current green extraction methodologies of marine-origin polysaccharides and their molecular engineering toolbox for designing a multitude of biomaterial platforms for healthcare. Furthermore, we discuss how to foster circular bio-based approaches to pursue the further development of added-value biomedical devices, while preserving the marine ecosystem.

Electrically Conductive Hydrogels for Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Articular cartilage is a highly specialized tissue found in diarthrodial joints, which is crucial for healthy articular motion. Despite its importance, articular cartilage has limited regenerative capacities, and the degeneration of this tissue is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with hundreds of millions of people affected. As current treatment options for cartilage degeneration remain ineffective, tissue engineering has emerged as an exciting approach to create cartilage substitutes. In particular, hydrogels seem to be suitable candidates for this purpose due to their biocompatibility and high customizability, being able to be tailored to fit the biophysical properties of native cartilage. Furthermore, these hydrogel matrices can be combined with conductive materials in order to simulate the natural electrochemical properties of articular cartilage. In this review, we highlight the most common conductive materials combined with hydrogels and their diverse applications, and then present the current state of research on the development of electrically conductive hydrogels for cartilage tissue engineering. Finally, the main challenges and future perspectives for the application of electrically conductive hydrogels on articular cartilage repair strategies are also discussed.