Abstract

CLASSIFICATIONS OF POLYMERIC HYDROGELS AND THEIR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Li-Jun Xu, Yu Zhou, Ping Hu*, Ren-Wang Jiang*

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The objective of this study was to describe the major categories and applications of hydrogels prepared by various polymeric materials. Methods: The databases including Pubmed, Scifinder and Google Scholar were searched, and the related literatures were reviewed and analyzed. Results: This paper introduces the classifications of the major types of hydrogels. Depending on the prepared materials, hydrogels can be divided into natural hydrogels, synthetic hydrogels and a combination of both. Depending on the formed crosslinking networks they can be classified as physical cross-linked hydrogels, chemically cross-linked hydrogels or physico-chemically cross-linked hydrogels. In addition, the applications of these hydrogels in biomedical fields were summarized. Conclusion: Polymeric hydrogels have been widely used in biomedicine, especially to treat all kinds of skin diseases.

Keywords: Hydrogel, wound, polymers, crosslinking.