Hydrogels have been widely used as tissue engineering scaffolds due to their good biocompatibility, soft tissue-like properties, and highly water-swollen networks that allow permeability for oxygen, nutrients and water-soluble metabolites. They can be fabricated from natural biopolymers, synthetic polymers or their hybrids. Biopolymer-derived hydrogels, such as collagen, fibrin and matrigel, usually have concerns in weak mechanical strength, potential immunogenic reactions and animal virus contamination. To overcome these drawbacks, synthetic hydrogels have emerged as important alternatives because they have a well-defined structure, controlled chemical composition and tunable mechanical property. However, most synthetic materials are bio-inert. To address this issue, more research has been focused on the design of biomimetic hydrogels, which aims to mimic the physicochemical and biological properties of natural materials for tissue engineering.

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