Alginate: Pharmaceutical and Medical Applications

Due to their outstanding properties in terms of mild gelation conditions and simple functionalization, biocompatibility, low toxicity, biodegradability, non-antigenicity and chelating ability, as well as relatively low cost, alginates have been widely used in a variety of biomedical applications including tissue engineering and drug delivery systems. Smart alginate hydrogels for on-demand drug release in response to environmental stimuli and 3D bioprinting will play an important role in the future. These and the introduction of appropriate cell interactive features will be crucial for many tissue engineering applications. The focus of the present chapter is to highlight the great potential of the alginates as biomaterial for biomedical applications and to discuss the role that alginate-based materials are likely to play in biomedical applications in the future.