title: Hydrogels for ocular drug delivery and tissue engineering.
abstract: Hydrogels, as crosslinked polymeric three dimensional networks, possess unique structure and behavior in response to the internal and/or external stimuli. As a result, they offer great prospective applications in drug delivery, cell therapy and human tissue engineering. Here, we highlight the potential of hydrogels in prolonged intraocular drug delivery and ocular surface therapy using stem cells incorporated hydrogels.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Marzieh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fathi
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Jaleh
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barar
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Ayuob
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aghanejad
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Yadollah
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Omidi
keywords: Cell therapy; Drug delivery; Eye; Hydrogels; Ocular diseases; Tissue engineering