Bio-based Stimuli-responsive Hydrogels with Biomedical Applications

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels, also known as 'environment-sensitive', 'smart', or 'intelligent' hydrogels, represent a broad class of hydrogels which can undergo rapid physicochemical transitions as a response to various external stimuli (physical, chemical, or biological). The polysaccharide-based stimuli-responsive hydrogels, due to their versatile properties, received a significant attention and showed great potential for wide field of applications, from the industrial to medical field. Biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, hydrophilicity, similarity with living tissue or with the extracellular matrix are some of the properties attributed to these stimuli-responsive hydrogels. Accordingly, hydrogels have gained significant interest for biomedical applications such as biosensors, artificial muscles, drug delivery, wound healing, and tissue regeneration. This chapter presents an overview of recent advances in polysaccharide-based stimuli-responsive hydrogels. Some important aspects related to the synthesis and characterization of stimuli-responsive hydrogels have been highlighted, summarizing also the structures and properties of bio-based polymers. The latest applications in biomedical field, including controlled drug release and tissue engineering, have received a special attention.