Chapter 6: In Situ Forming Hydrogels

Hydrogels have attracted increasing attention in recent years for diverse biomedical applications. In situ forming hydrogels provide additional advantages over conventional hydrogels, such as ease of administration and minimally invasive treatment, which are convenient for in vivo surgical operation and improve patient compliance. Therefore, they have been extensively investigated as scaffolds or carriers of drugs, cells, and bioactive molecules. Recently, a variety of in situ forming gels have been developed through physical and/or chemical cross-linking reactions, which can respond to external stimuli, such as light, temperature, and pH. In this chapter, we present an overview of the versatile crosslinking strategies for in situ forming hydrogel fabrication and discuss their current advancements and future perspectives.