Hydrogel Biomaterials

Abstract

A staggering number of medical devices, diagnostic and therapeutic products that are designed to improve the health of mankind have exploited biomaterials as platform technologies (Peppas et al., 2006). Defined as natural or synthetic materials (other than drugs) to treat, augment, or replace any tissues, organ, or function of living tissues, biomaterials design requires both materials and biological considerations. In addition to the mechanical requirements, biomaterials have to accomplish some specific requirements, such as non-toxicity, desired functionality, sterilizability and biocompatibility (Rosiak & Yoshii, 1999). Despite the widespread use of biomaterials in medicine, most biomaterials do not provide all of the desired requirements to interact with biological systems. Therefore, there is a significant progress to redesign current biomaterials or to develop new materials in order to overcome limitations associated with fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. Although the term biomaterial includes metals and ceramics, polymers account for the vast majority. In this last group, hydrogels, having considerable biocompatibility and similarity with tissue components of the body, have demonstrated great potential as one of the most promising groups of biomaterials (Rosiak & Yoshii, 1999; Rogero et al., 2003).