Overview of Magnetic Hydrogel Fabrication, Its Basic Characteristics, and Potential Uses in Biomedical Engineering

Magnetic hydrogels are stimulus-responsive hydrogels with rapid response when placed in a magnetic field. Their properties include those of conventional hydrogels such as biocompatibility, viscoelasticity, and a high content of water, with the addition of magnetic actuation, magnetothermal conductivity, and magnetic resonance conferred by the magnetic particles. Their use in the biomedical field is constantly growing, with various applications such as drug delivery, hyperthermia treatment, theranostic, and tissue engineering. Since the research field of magnetic hydrogels is very dynamic, it is important to review the literature regularly to highlight the most recent insights of the field. In this review, we focused on the latest advances of magnetic hydrogels and give a large overview on their types, fabrication, properties, and applications in hyperthermia, drug delivery, wound healing, MRI, sensors, and tissue engineering (neural, cartilage, bone, and cardiac tissues). We concluded this review with challenges and future developments of magnetic hydrogels.