ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the potential impact that magneto-responsive hydrogels could have on the future of personalized regenerative medicine. Magneto-responsive biomaterials are capable of producing compressive and tensile forces that can be sensed by cells located within the scaffold and activate mechanosensitive channels on the cell membrane. Magneto-responsive biomaterials show high potential as active scaffolds that can be used to guide the regeneration of a damaged tissue. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels capable of responding to subtle changes in their local environment have become a subject of interest in the field of tissue engineering for their potential application in guiding the regeneration of a damaged tissue in vivo. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have also been utilized in the construction of multi-layered tissue structures for potential tissue engineering applications. Magnetic scaffolds used for tissue engineering applications usually consist of a synthetic or naturally derived biomaterial with MNPs distributed throughout the scaffold.
