Thermogeling hydrogels in 3D printing and as drug depots

Abstract: Hydrogels represent an very interesting class of materials for biomedical applications. With the interest in additive manufacturing surging in the last few years, hydrogels gained renewed attention for 3D printing of living cells. This field termed biofabrication requires hydrogels which are cytocompatible, protect the cells during printing but also allow them to expand and mature into functional tissue after printing. At the same time, it is desirable to have high printing resolution and shape fidelity of the prints. Combining all these prerequisites remains challenging.  We have recently discovered thermogeling, highly shear thinning hydrogels based on poly(2-oxazoline)s and poly(2-oxazine)s based block copolymers. The self-assemble into vesicles and worms, respectively, either upon heating or cooling, respectively. They exhibit excellent printability, are highly cytocompatible and can be combined with micellar drug delivery systems to injectable drug depots with prolonged drug release.

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