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Peer-reviewedCC BYDrug Design, Development and Therapy

Multifunctional Hydrogel Technologies in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine: From Material Design to Precision Intervention

  • Wan Z1
  • Wu J2
  • Jiang Y
  • Chen Q
  • Wang H
  • Liu C
  • Fu X
  • Luo R3
  • Luo G4
  • Liu M5
5 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Cardiovascular Disease
  2. 2Department of Cardiovascular Medicine
  3. 3Preventive Medicine
  4. 4The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital
  5. 5Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Southwest Medical University
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Abstract

Zhenxun Wan,1,* Jinwen Wu,1,* Yan Jiang,1,* Qirui Chen,2 Haobo Wang,2 Chenchen Liu,1 Xincheng Fu,3 Rouqian Luo,3 Gang Luo,1 Mengnan Liu11Department of Cardiovascular Disease, The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Public Health, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Mengnan Liu, Department of Cardiovascular Disease, The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Gang Luo, Department of Cardiovascular Disease, The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Current therapies mainly control symptoms and compensate function but cannot regenerate myocardial or vascular tissue. Hydrogels possess ECM-mimetic hydrated networks, tunable viscoelasticity and degradation, in situ gelation, and customizable bioactivity, enabling synergistic local retention, mechanical support, electrical/ionic conduction, controlled release, and microenvironment modulation. They therefore hold translational value for cardiovascular repair, but current evidence remains fragmented and lacks systematic integration. Unlike reviews focused on a single material, function, or disease, this review uses cascade matching as its central framework to critically evaluate the relationships among multifunctional hydrogel design, functional attributes, biological mechanisms, cardiovascular outcomes, and clinical translation, and to distill translational design principles and evaluation requirements. Following PRISMA guidelines, 5t6 original research studies were included in this review. Hydrogels exhibit multidimensional repair potential in cardiomyopathy, coronary atherosclerosis, and arrhythmia through four overlapping functional domains: mechanical support, electrical repair, therapeutic delivery, and microenvironment modulation. Current evidence remains predominantly preclinical and is limited by insufficient dynamic mechanical adaptation, interfacial fatigue, lack of standardized electrical evaluation, mismatched degradation timing, unclear mechanistic causal chains, and inconsistent evaluation systems. This review integrates preclinical evidence, clarifies the associations among hydrogel design, functional mechanisms, and cardiovascular outcomes, and distills translational design principles and evaluation requirements to inform future research.Keywords: hydrogels, cardiovascular diseases, regenerative medicine, tissue repair, biomimetic engineering

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{wan2026multifunctional,
  title = {{Multifunctional Hydrogel Technologies in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine: From Material Design to Precision Intervention}},
  author = {Wan Z and Wu J and Jiang Y and Chen Q and Wang H and Liu C and Fu X and Luo R and Luo G and Liu M},
  journal = {Drug Design, Development and Therapy},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://www.dovepress.com/multifunctional-hydrogel-technologies-in-cardiovascular-regenerative-m-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-DDDT},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Multifunctional Hydrogel Technologies in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine: From Material Design to Precision Intervention
AU  - Wan Z
AU  - Wu J
AU  - Jiang Y
AU  - Chen Q
AU  - Wang H
AU  - Liu C
AU  - Fu X
AU  - Luo R
AU  - Luo G
AU  - Liu M
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/05
JO  - Drug Design, Development and Therapy
UR  - https://www.dovepress.com/multifunctional-hydrogel-technologies-in-cardiovascular-regenerative-m-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-DDDT
AB  - Zhenxun Wan,1,* Jinwen Wu,1,* Yan Jiang,1,* Qirui Chen,2 Haobo Wang,2 Chenchen Liu,1 Xincheng Fu,3 Rouqian Luo,3 Gang Luo,1 Mengnan Liu11Department of Cardiovascular Disease, The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Public Health, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Mengnan Liu, Department of Cardiovascular Disease, The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Gang Luo, Department of Cardiovascular Disease, The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Current therapies mainly control symptoms and compensate function but cannot regenerate myocardial or vascular tissue. Hydrogels possess ECM-mimetic hydrated networks, tunable viscoelasticity and degradation, in situ gelation, and customizable bioactivity, enabling synergistic local retention, mechanical support, electrical/ionic conduction, controlled release, and microenvironment modulation. They therefore hold translational value for cardiovascular repair, but current evidence remains fragmented and lacks systematic integration. Unlike reviews focused on a single material, function, or disease, this review uses cascade matching as its central framework to critically evaluate the relationships among multifunctional hydrogel design, functional attributes, biological mechanisms, cardiovascular outcomes, and clinical translation, and to distill translational design principles and evaluation requirements. Following PRISMA guidelines, 5t6 original research studies were included in this review. Hydrogels exhibit multidimensional repair potential in cardiomyopathy, coronary atherosclerosis, and arrhythmia through four overlapping functional domains: mechanical support, electrical repair, therapeutic delivery, and microenvironment modulation. Current evidence remains predominantly preclinical and is limited by insufficient dynamic mechanical adaptation, interfacial fatigue, lack of standardized electrical evaluation, mismatched degradation timing, unclear mechanistic causal chains, and inconsistent evaluation systems. This review integrates preclinical evidence, clarifies the associations among hydrogel design, functional mechanisms, and cardiovascular outcomes, and distills translational design principles and evaluation requirements to inform future research.Keywords: hydrogels, cardiovascular diseases, regenerative medicine, tissue repair, biomimetic engineering
SN  - 1177-8881
ER  -