Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the swelling-strengthening behavior.

a Biological membrane barriers existed in living tissues, such as muscle. Transmembrane transport that is responsible for the hyperemia-mediated increasement of muscle stiffness depends on the ionic channel, transporters, diffusion, etc. b Variation of mechanical strength after swelling between typical synthetic materials and the swelling-strengthening hydrogels (SSHs) described in this work. c Development of SSHs via a biological membrane barrier-inspired strategy. Transport across the synthetic liposomal membranes mainly relies on diffusion.