What Are Hydrogels?
The formation of hydrogels has changed considerably since their invention some 50 plus years ago, which makes them even more helpful when it comes to creating the perfect synthetic environment for cells to survive and thrive.
How are hydrogels used?
Synthetic hydrogels enable cost-effective and easily reproducible inks and gels that can be fully tuned to meet the growing industry demand for synthetic hydrogels. They can be used with no preparation to mimic the micro-environment of required cell cultures.
Companies such as Manchester Biogel have worked tirelessly to bring a chemically defined peptide hydrogel to the market that fully supports 2D and 3D cell culture, tissue regeneration and bioprinting, and drug discovery.
What types of hydrogels are there?
Hydrogels can be split into two main categories, natural and synthetic. Natural hydrogels come from natural living sources while synthetic hydrogels are artificially derived. Natural hydrogels such as collagen and matrigel are challenging to control, with test results differing between batches. However, as a critical component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in vivo, they were relied upon until the creation of synthetic hydrogels, which is the subject of our interest.
Synthetic hydrogels
Human cells mostly grow on an ECM. Developing synthetic hydrogels that can effectively and reproducibly mimic this environment in a test environment more readily than a naturally derived product is excellent for personalised drug therapy and drug discovery.
Synthetic hydrogels include much easier reproduced materials, such as polyethene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol and diacrylate to become self-supporting scaffolds. They consist of water-swollen 3D viscoelastic networks that allow attachment and diffusion of molecules and cells to mimic the ECM environment. Complex 3D model scaffolds and tissue engineering solutions that include:
- Cartilage and tissue repair through tissue regeneration
- Drug delivery matrices
- Injury recovery to organs and bones
- Wound healing
- Cell therapy cell encapsulation
Synthetic hydrogels for research
When choosing a suitable synthetic hydrogel, its benefits over natural hydrogels are clear.
Natural hydrogels have no mechanism to be controlled reproducibly between experiments, and the inconsistencies between batch results can hamper and derail test results affecting budget and timetables.
On the other hand, synthetic hydrogels are easily reproducible and a cost-effective, fully modifiable way to support specific cross-linking mechanisms. They are
- Biocompatible
- Biodegradable
- Generally non-immunogenic
The use of peptides as nature’s building blocks includes PeptiGels and PeptiInks that require no special storage, offer exact results at room temperature and require no preparation before use. Such products are widely used within 3D printing, allowing printability and cell viability to create 3D cell structures.
Synthetic hydrogels are a more readily available, highly tunable solution for cell scaffolding. They are compatible with all cell growth environments to provide a 2D, 3D and in some cases, 4D in vitro model that fully represents in vivo climates. They can be tailored, something not possible as readily with natural hydrogels for mechanical stiffness and functionality to offer reliable and reproducible cell development. They can also be structured to include specific cell recognition sequences to represent native ECM. Peptide hydrogels enable many industries to access culture models for cell growth reliably and cost-effectively.
Who is using hydrogels?
Regenerative medicine platform has a huge potential to change drug discovery and regenerative organ and tissue development. Hydrogels are used in a wide range of biomedical and engineering applications. They are also used for environmental applications such as wastewater treatment and soft robotics.
Hydrogels are a unique material that broadens the ability to create cost-effective cell development environments. They provide a heavy water-absorbing and fully tunable environment that mimics in vivo reactions in an in vitro environment. Synthetic hydrogels are robust and able to imbibe large water volumes that will not typically dissolve when faced with chemical cross-linking.
