Hydrogels from Biopolymer Hybrid for Biomedical, Food, and Functional Food Applications

Hybrid hydrogels from biopolymers have been applied for various indications across a wide range of biomedical, pharmaceutical, and functional food industries. In particular, hybrid hydrogels synthesized from two biopolymers have attracted increasing attention. The inclusion of a second biopolymer st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolymers Vol. 4; no. 2; pp. 997 - 1011
Main Authors Liu, Lin Shu, Kost, Joseph, Yan, Fang, Spiro, Robert C.
Format Journal Article Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2012
Subjects
biopolymer
controlled drug delivery
functional food
hybrid
hydrogel
tissue engineering
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Summary:Hybrid hydrogels from biopolymers have been applied for various indications across a wide range of biomedical, pharmaceutical, and functional food industries. In particular, hybrid hydrogels synthesized from two biopolymers have attracted increasing attention. The inclusion of a second biopolymer strengthens the stability of resultant hydrogels and enriches its functionalities by bringing in new functional groups or optimizing the micro-environmental conditions for certain biological and biochemical processes. This article presents approaches that have been used by our groups to synthesize biopolymer hybrid hydrogels for effective uses for immunotherapy, tissue regeneration, food and functional food applications. The research has achieved some challenging results, such as stabilizing physical structure, increasing mucoadhesiveness, and the creation of an artificial extracellular matrix to aid in guiding tissue differentiation.
ISSN:2073-4360
2073-4360
DOI:10.3390/polym4020997