New thermo-responsive hydrogels based on hyaluronic acid/poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) semi-interpenetrated polymer networks: Swelling properties and drug release studies

[Excerpt] Smart or stimuli-responsive hydrogels present the ability to change their volume or shape in response to an environmental signal. They have attracted great interest due to their potential application in biomedical areas such as drug delivery and tissue engineering. Among the family of temperature intelligent hydrogels, poly(Nisopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) -based hydrogels show reversible volume phase transitions during heating/cooling across a certain temperature (~328C), which corresponds to its lower critical solution temperature (LCST). [...]