Mechanical behavior of hydrogels for soft tissue replacement and regeneration

Soft tissue repair and regeneration is a field of bioengineering focused on the development of 10 bioactive substitutes capable of restoring the physiological function of damaged and diseased tissues. 11Biomaterials play a crucial role in this field, serving as either bio-inert materials that integrate well 12 into living tissues with minimal biological response, or as bioactive materials that promote new tissue 13 growth while slowly degrading in the body. 14In most tissue repair and regeneration applications, several mechanical aspects come into play, such 15 as in vivo loading conditions, time-dependent mechanical effects and mechanotransduction. 16Accordingly, the characteristics of the chosen biomaterials have a significant impact on the final 17 mechanical performance at different size scales, ranging from cellular up to tissue/organ level. 18 Hydrogels exhibit great potential as biomaterials for soft tissue replacement and regeneration due to 19 their unique physicochemical and mechanical properties. They possess the ability to absorb large 20 amounts of water, show low elastic modulus and viscoelastic behavior. between the viscoelastic relaxation in the polymer network and the fluid time-dependent response is 80 challenging from an experimental point of view, as it is necessary to clarify the role of absorbed and 81 bounded water in the hydrogel matrix and the effect of compressive loads on the amount and flow of 82 the liquid phase. 83 While addressing several different themes related to the mechanical behavior of hydrogels for soft 84 tissue replacement and regeneration, this Research Topics aims to highlight the importance of 85 investigating and understanding mechanical aspects, both with experimental and computational 86 methods, which could improve the functionality of hydrogels in vivo, in the short and long-term 87 performances.