| Hydrogels are a three-dimensional and crosslinked network of hydrophilic polymers. They can absorb a large
amount of water or biological fluids, which leads to their swelling while maintaining their 3D structure without
dissolving (Zhu and Marchant, Expert Rev Med Devices 8:607–626, 2011). Among the numerous polymers which
have been utilized for the preparation of the hydrogels, polysaccharides have gained more attention in the area of
pharmaceutics; Sodium alginate is a non-toxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable polysaccharide with several
unique physicochemical properties for which has used as delivery vehicles for drugs (Kumar Giri et al., Curr Drug
Deliv 9:539–555, 2012). Owing to their high-water content and resembling the natural soft tissue, hydrogels were
studied a lot as a scaffold. The formation of hydrogels can occur by interactions of the anionic alginates with
multivalent inorganic cations through a typical ionotropic gelation method. However, those applications require the
control of some properties such as mechanical stiffness, swelling, degradation, cell attachment, and binding or
release of bioactive molecules by using the chemical or physical modifications of the alginate hydrogel. In the
current review, an overview of alginate hydrogels and their properties will be presented as well as the methods of
producing alginate hydrogels. In the next section of the present review paper, the application of the alginate
hydrogels will be defined as drug delivery vehicles for chemotherapeutic agents. The recent advances in the
application of the alginate-based hydrogels will be describe later as a wound dressing and bioink in 3D bioprinting |