Modification, 3D printing process and application of sodium alginate based hydrogels in soft tissue engineering: A review

Sodium alginate (SA) is an inexpensive and biocompatible biomaterial with fast and gentle crosslinking that has been widely used in biological soft tissue repair/regeneration. Especially with the advent of 3D bioprinting technology, SA hydrogels have been applied more deeply in tissue engineering due to their excellent printability. Currently, the research on material modification, molding process and application of SA-based composite hydrogels has become a hot topic in tissue engineering, and a lot of fruitful results have been achieved. To better help readers have a comprehensive understanding of the development status of SA based hydrogels and their molding process in tissue engineering, in this review, we summarized SA modification methods, and provided a comparative analysis of the characteristics of various SA based hydrogels. Secondly, various molding methods of SA based hydrogels were introduced, the processing characteristics and the applications of different molding methods were analyzed and compared. Finally, the applications of SA based hydrogels in tissue engineering were reviewed, the challenges in their applications were also analyzed, and the future research directions were pro-spected. We believe this review is of great helpful for the researchers working in biomedical and tissue engineering.

Automated summary

This article summarizes the application of sodium alginate (SA) in biological soft tissue repair/regeneration, especially its use in tissue engineering with the advent of 3D bioprinting technology. The article reviews SA modification methods and provides a comparative analysis of the characteristics of various SA-based hydrogels. It also introduces various molding methods of SA-based hydrogels, analyzes and compares the processing characteristics and applications of different molding methods. Additionally, it reviews the applications of SA-based hydrogels in tissue engineering, analyzes the challenges in their applications, and discusses future research directions.