Self-healing Hydrogels

Biomaterials with features that allow them to heal themselves when damaged by mechanical, thermal, or other mechanisms and restore their original sets of properties autonomously and automatically without any external intervention have been the pinnacle of regenerative medicine. Self-healing hydrogels are of particular interest, especially in tissue engineering, and this healing capacity is derived from either reversible chemical or physical bonds or a combination of both. In addition, self-healing hydrogels with shear-thinning properties can potentially be used in bioprinting for the fabrication of tissue engineering constructs. The development and advancements in 3D-printed self-healing hydrogels will allow researchers to enhance the flexibility and performance of soft tissue engineering scaffolds in a significant manner. Self-healing hydrogels, when fabrications using extrusion-based 3D printing approach, can recover their mechanical integrity and heal autonomously once it is extruded through the nozzle. In addition, studies have been carried out to examine the relationship between hydrogel ink properties and printability using extrusion-based printers to achieve both adequate printability and high cell viability.