Table 1.
Comparative table of polymers to fabricate hydrogels for bone regeneration
| Polymer | Advantages | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|
| Collagen | - Most abundant ECM in bone - Providing cell attachment sites - Natural growth factor reservoir |
- Potentially provoking immune response - Hard to control the quality due to heterogeneity of sources |
| Gelatin | - Mimicking bone ECM - Lower immunogenicity than collagen - Easy to functionalize |
- Fast degradation - Low mechanical strength |
| Fibrin | - Providing cell attachment sites - Easy to tune mechanical strength - Fast gelation |
- Significant shrinking during gelation - Fast degradation - Low bone specific bioactivity |
| Hyaluronic acid | - Interacting with growth factors - Low immunogenicity - Easy to functionalize |
- Low mechanical stability without crosslinking - Fast degradation |
| Chitosan | - Inherent antibacterial properties - Easy to functionalize - Low immunogenicity |
- Requiring additional modification to improve solubility |
| Alginate | - Fast gelation - Easy to functionalize |
- Possibility to lose structure by cation leaching |
| Nucleic acid | - Easy to control structure due to its specific basepairing properties | - Difficult to make a bulk hydrogel |
| PEG | - Easy to functionalize - Stable in physiological condition |
- Nondegradable - Low cell adhesion - Some immunogenicity |
| PNIPAM | - Temperature sensitive - Low immunogenicity |
- Nondegradable - Weak mechanical strength |