Hydrogels are widely used as reservoirs in drug delivery and scaffolds for tissue engineering. In particular, injectable hydrogel systems, which are formed by physical, chemical, or enzyme-mediated crosslinking reactions in situ, offer the advantages of minimal invasiveness, ease of application, and void-filling property. Examples of these hydrogels are provided in the first part of this paper. In the second part, hydrogels that are formed by the enzymatic activity of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) are highlighted. HRP catalyzes the crosslinking reaction of polymer-phenol conjugates in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), resulting in hydrogels with tunable gelation rate and crosslinking density. The catalytic mechanism of the HRP-mediated crosslinking reaction is discussed in detail, and the recent biomedical applications of the HRP-crosslinked hydrogels are described. Lastly, the concerns associated with HRP-mediated crosslinking and the future outlook of HRP-crosslinked hydrogels are addressed.
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This research is supported by the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (Biomedical Research Council, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore).
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This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication/published
in Biomedical Materials. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-6041/11/1/014101