Exploration of BioMat-X

Table 2. Comparison of crosslinking mechanisms for injectable hydrogels.

Mechanism type	Chemistry	Gelation time	Mechanical properties (G')	Self-crosslinking capability
Physical-Ionic	Alginate + Ca²⁺, chitosan + tripolyphosphate	Seconds–minutes	Low–moderate (~10–1,000 Pa)	Limited (requires ion source)
Physical-Thermal	Pluronic F127, PNIPAM	Minutes	Moderate (~1–10 kPa)	Yes (temperature-dependent)
Physical-Supramolecular	Cyclodextrin-polymer, peptide assemblies	Seconds–minutes	Low–moderate	Yes (host-guest, H-bonding)
Chemical-Enzymatic	Transglutaminase, HRP/H₂O₂	Minutes	Moderate–high (~1–20 kPa)	No (requires enzyme)
Chemical-Photo-crosslinking*	GelMA/PEGDA + UV/Vis	Seconds–minutes	Tunable (~0.1–100 kPa)	No (requires photoinitiator + light)
Chemical-Click chemistry	Thiol-ene, Diels-Alder, azide-alkyne	Minutes–hours	High (~5–50 kPa)	Limited (requires catalyst)

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* Photo-crosslinked GelMA-based hydrogels are already in a preclinical phase of testing as a cartilage repair and ocular surface reconstruction material.

Declarations

Author contributions

EA: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Visualization, Writing—review & editing, Project supervision. DA: Supervision, Writing—review & editing. Both authors read and approved the submitted version.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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