Tissue engineering has gained prominence during the past decade since it offers a key solution to defects associated with the tissue regeneration. The limited healing potential of the cartilage tissue damage has significant clinical implications. Herein, dysprosium (Dy3+) impregnated polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels have been developed to enhance the therapeutic efficacy, enabling simultaneous diagnostic imaging and antibacterial drug delivery for potential applications in articular cartilage. Based on the favorable imaging features, Dy3+ impregnated PVA hydrogels with enhanced stability were formed through successive steps of repeated cycles of freezing at - 30 °C for 21 h, thawing at 25 °C for 4 h and lyophilization. The tensile and compression tests of the hydrogels respectively determined a maximum of 3.88 and 1.58 MPa, which reflected better compatibility towards cartilage. The hydrogels fetched a sustained drug release for a period of 12 h with an associated swelling ratio of 80%. The potential of the resultant hydrogels in image diagnosis has been deliberated through their blue and yellow emissions in the visible region. Further, the computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of the hydrogels respectively accomplished a maximum of 343 Hounsfiled units (HU) and relaxivity of 7.25 mM-1s-1. The cytocompatibility of the hydrogels is also determined through in vitro tests performed in Murine pro B cell line (BA/F3) and human Megakaryocyte cell line (Mo7e) cell lines.

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-based hydrogels have attracted great attention and been widely used in biological tissue engineering. With the development of modern medicine, precision medicine requires the customization of medical materials. However, lacking of photocurable functional groups or the performance of rapid phase transition makes PVA-based hydrogels difficult to be customizable molded through photocuring 3D printing technique. In this research, customizable PVA-based hydrogels with high performance through 3D photocurable printing and freezing-thawing (F-T) process are obtained. The ability of 3D-printable is endowed by the introduction of polyvinyl alcohol-styrylpyridine (PVA-SBQ), which can be photo-crosslinked quickly without photoinitiator. Meanwhile, the tunable mechanical properties are achieved by adjusting the mass ratio of PVA-SBQ to PVA, and PVA can offer the physical crosslinking points through freezing-thawing (F-T) process. The hydrogels with high resolution are prepared by digital light procession 3D printing with the mass ratio 1:1 of PVA-SBQ to PVA solution. Attributed to the absence of initiator, and no small molecule residues inside the hydrogels, the hydrogels have good biocompatibility and have the potential to be applicated in the field of biological tissue engineering.

Articular cartilage (AC) degradation is a recurrent pathology that affects millions of people worldwide. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels have been widely explored for AC replacement. However, their mechanical performance is generally inadequate, and these materials need to be reinforced. Moreover, to be used in a clinical setting, such materials must undergo effective sterilisation. In this work, a PVA hydrogel reinforced with poly(p-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole) (PBO) nanofibres was submitted to three non-conventional sterilisation methods: microwave (MW), high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), and plasma (PM), in order to evaluate their impact on the properties of the material. Sterilisation was achieved in all cases. Properties such as water content and hydrophilicity were not affected. FTIR analysis indicated some changes in crystallinity and/or crosslinking in all cases. MW was revealed to be the most suitable method, since, unlike to PM and HHP, it led to a general improvement of the materials\' properties: increasing the hardness, stiffness (both in tensile and compression), and shear modulus, and also leading to a decrease in the coefficient of friction against porcine cartilage. Furthermore, the samples remained non-irritant and non-cytotoxic. Moreover, this method allows terminal sterilisation in a short time (3 min) and using accessible equipment.

In today\'s world, the progress of wearable tools has gained increasing momentum. Notably, the demand for stretchable strain sensors has considerably increased owing to various potential and emerging applications like human motion monitoring, soft robotics, prosthetics, and electronic skin. Hydrogels possess excellent biocompatibility, flexibility, and stretchability that render them ideal candidates for flexible/wearable substrates. Among them, enormous efforts were focused on the progress of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels to realize multifunctional wearable sensing through using additives/nanofillers/functional groups to modify the hydrogel network. Herein, this review offers an up-to-date and comprehensive summary of the research progress of PVA hydrogel-based wearable sensors in view of their properties, strain sensory efficiency, and potential applications, followed by specifically highlighting their probes using metallic/non-metallic, liquid metal (LM), 2D materials, bio-nanomaterials, and polymer nanofillers. Indeed, flexible electrodes and strain/pressure sensing performance of designed PVA hydrogels for their effective sensing are described. The representative cases are carefully selected and discussed regarding the construction, merits and demerits, respectively. Finally, the necessity and requirements for future advances of conductive and stretchable hydrogels engaged in the wearable strain sensors are also presented, followed by opportunities and challenges.

Available wound dressings have some major deficiencies including low water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), low absorption of wound fluids, and not providing a suitable and moist environment for wound healing. The main advantage of hydrogels is giving aid to the creation of a moist and cool environment for wound healing and providing high water vapor permeability along with preventing penetration of microbes into the wound surface. Therefore, hydrogels of heparinized polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/chitosan (CS)/nano zinc oxide (nZnO) were prepared to be used as wound dressing. Samples were characterized via infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). In addition, other properties including swelling ratio, water vapor transmission rate, the size of pores, mechanical and thermal properties, cell viability, and antibacterial efficiency were investigated. Water vapor permeability, porosity, and swelling ratio showed a wide range of numerical values that facilitate the use of provided samples as ideal wound dressings. Besides, investigating mechanical and thermal properties exhibited the improvement of mentioned properties by adding nano zinc oxide. Furthermore, Heparin loading was conducted on optimum samples. Heparin release rate decreased and was more sustained by adding nanoparticles compared to hydrogel wound dressings without nZnO. Cell viability of bionanocomposite samples showed no toxicity after loading nanoparticles and this value was >70% for all samples. Antibacterial properties of hydrogel samples can effectively protect wounds especially with an increase nZnO content. Hence, these hydrogels were found applicable as robust wound dressings.

The capability for sustained and gradual release of pharmaceuticals is a major requirement in the development of a guided antimicrobial bacterial control system for clinical applications. In this study, PVA gels with varying constituents that were manufactured via a refreeze/thawing route, were found to have excellent potential for antimicrobial delivery for bone infections. Cefuroxime Sodium with poly(ethylene glycol) was incorporated into 2 delivery systems poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) and hydroxyapatite (HA), by a modified emulsion process. Our results indicate that the Cefuroxime Sodium released from poly(e-caprolactone) in PVA was tailored to a sustained release over more than 45 days, while the release from hydroxyapatite PVA reach burst maximum after 20 days. These PVA hydrogel-systems were also capable of controlled and sustained release of other biopharmaceuticals.