Dendrimers and Dendrons as Versatile Building Blocks for the Fabrication of Functional Hydrogels

Hydrogels have emerged as a versatile class of polymeric materials with a wide range of applications in biomedical sciences. The judicious choice of hydrogel precursors allows one to introduce the necessary attributes to these materials that dictate their performance towards intended applications. Traditionally, hydrogels were fabricated using either polymerization of monomers or through crosslinking of polymers. In recent years, dendrimers and dendrons have been employed as well-defined building blocks in these materials. The multivalent and multifunctional nature of dendritic constructs offers advantages in either formulation or the physical and chemical properties of the obtained hydrogels. This review highlights various approaches utilized for the fabrication of hydrogels using well-defined dendrimers, dendrons and their polymeric conjugates. Examples from recent literature are chosen to illustrate the wide variety of hydrogels that have been designed using dendrimer- and dendron-based building blocks for applications, such as sensing, drug delivery and tissue engineering.