ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the potential impact that magneto-responsive hydrogels could have on the future of personalized regenerative medicine. Several strategies have been used to develop magneto-responsive scaffolds. Magnetic scaffolds used for tissue engineering applications usually consist of a synthetic or naturally derived biomaterial with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) distributed throughout the scaffold. The incorporation of magnetic nanomaterials into a polymer-based scaffold can be achieve by either blending the MNPs with the biomaterial, in situ precipitation of MNPs in a swollen hydrogel environment, or forming covalent bonds between MNPs and a biomaterial scaffold. The scaffolds were then subjected to a controlled magnetic field of 0.8 T. They found that the mechanical stimulation resulting from the deformation of the magnetic scaffold significantly incased GAG expression and caused the stem cells to commit to a chondrogenic lineage.
