Hydrogels have long been explored as attractive materials for biomedical applications given their outstanding biocompatibility, high water content, and versatile fabrication platforms into materials with different physiochemical properties and geometries. Nonetheless, conventional hydrogels suffer from weak mechanical properties, restricting their use in persistent load-bearing applications often required of materials used in medical settings. Thus, the fabrication of mechanically robust hydrogels that can prolong the lifetime of clinically suitable materials under uncompromising in vivo conditions is of great interest. This review focuses on design considerations and strategies to construct such tough hydrogels. Several promising advances in the proposed use of specialty tough hydrogels for soft actuators, drug delivery vehicles, adhesives, coatings, and in tissue engineering settings are highlighted. While challenges remain before these specialty tough hydrogels will be deemed translationally acceptable for clinical applications, promising preliminary results undoubtedly spur great hope in the potential impact this embryonic research field can have on the biomedical community.

中文翻译：

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特种坚韧水凝胶及其生物医学应用。

由于水凝胶具有出色的生物相容性、高含水量以及具有不同理化性质和几何形状的材料的多功能制造平台，长期以来一直被探索为生物医学应用的有吸引力的材料。尽管如此，传统水凝胶的机械性能较差，限制了它们在医疗环境中使用的材料通常需要的持久承载应用中的使用。因此，制造机械坚固的水凝胶，可以在不妥协的体内条件下延长临床适用材料的寿命，引起了人们的极大兴趣。本综述重点关注构建此类坚韧水凝胶的设计考虑因素和策略。强调了在软执行器、药物输送载体、粘合剂、涂层和组织工程环境中使用特种坚韧水凝胶的一些有希望的进展。虽然在这些特种坚韧水凝胶被认为可以转化为临床应用之前仍然存在挑战，但有希望的初步结果无疑激发了人们对这一胚胎研究领域对生物医学界产生的潜在影响的巨大希望。