Mechanical behavior of hydrogels for soft tissue replacement and regeneration

Hydrogels have shown great potential in several biomedical applications due to their structural similarities to the extracellular matrix of native living tissues, as well as their availability as carriers for controlled drug delivery.
Due to their ability to absorb large amounts of water and their mechanical behavior as soft matter, they present physicochemical and mechanical properties comparable with those of many soft tissues. They can be also used as injectable materials able to adapt to the shape of damaged tissue or as bio-inks seeded with living cells for 3D bioprinting of engineered tissues and organ equivalents. Moreover, smart hydrogels are able to reversely change their swelling behavior or structure in response to light, pressure, temperature, pH, ionic strength, electric or magnetic field, and can be exploited as instructive materials to guide tissue repair and regeneration.

This Research Topic aims to collect high-quality contributions in the development and characterization of hydrogels for soft tissue replacement and regeneration, with special focus on mechanical aspects.

Topics may include but are not limited to the following:
- comparison between native tissues and hydrogels;
- methods for experimental testing of hydrogels mechanical performance;
- characterization of hyperelastic, viscoelastic and poro-viscoelastic behaviour;
- constitutive and computational modelling.
- hydrogels design for biofabrication

This collection welcomes Original Research, Review, Mini Review, and Perspectives articles.