Chapter 8: Hydrogel Processing Techniques and Vascular Tissue Engineering

Hydrogels exhibit mechanical properties and an architectural structure that mimics the native extracellular matrix. In addition, they have unique properties including swelling, diffusion, degradation and mechanical properties that can be tuned toward the targeted application, while they exhibit excellent biocompatibility. Therefore, hydrogels have been studied extensively to serve various biomedical and tissue engineering applications. In this chapter, hydrogels, their properties and their preparation methods are briefly introduced. Natural and synthetic hydrogels currently used in tissue engineering applications are also discussed, together with their advantages and limitations. Next, (conventional and co-axial) electrospinning is described as a processing technique to develop hydrogel scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Finally, vascular tissue engineering is introduced to provide the distinct example of a biomedical application, which can be tackled using hydrogels.