Natural hydrogels are extensively used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Some of the commonly used natural hydrogels are polysaccharides (such as agarose, alginate, chitosan, hyaluronic acid) or proteins (such as gelatin, collagen, fibrin).

Hydrogels can be found in both natural and synthetic forms. Natural hydrogels have the advantage of biodegradability while synthetic hydrogels can be customized for specific applications. Click on each group to see more details.

Synthetic hydrogels are of paramount interest to researchers since they can be modified with functional groups such as peptides, oligonucleotides, and cleavable linkages. Some of the frequently employed synthetic hydrogels are polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyacrylic acid (PAA), and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyacrylamide.