Chapter 15: Application of Magnetic Colloids in Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

Magnetic colloids have been used for numerous biomedical applications including drug delivery, thermal cancer treatment, imaging contrast agents, cell labeling and separations and in regenerative medicine. Recent efforts have sought to tackle pressing challenges in regenerative medicine by incorporating magnetic colloids into hydrogel matrices, resulting in magnetic hydrogels. The inclusion of magnetic colloids in the hydrogel matrix imparts remote actuation capability and magnetically tunable and anisotropic mechanical properties. In this chapter we discuss the use of magnetic nanoparticles as components of magnetic hydrogels or as sacrificial templates for patterning hydrogels, and we review recent regenerative medicine applications of such hydrogels in nerve, tendon, bone, cartilage and muscle tissue engineering and in stem cell culture.