Research progress on self-assembled quercetin hydrogels: Preparation methods, properties, and their application for tissue engineering

Tissue engineering, which can artificially construct functional tissues or organs to repair or replace tissue defects caused by diseases, traumas, or aging, has become a current research hotspot. Nevertheless, current traditional therapeutic methods in tissue engineering are confronted with numerous challenges, including limited sources, poor integration of grafts, and high immune rejection. Hence, there is an urgent need to research a new type of material to address these limitations. Self-assembled quercetin hydrogels (SAQHs), with their unique structural advantages and biological functions, have shown promising application prospects in various fields of tissue engineering, including bone, cartilage, and skin. The paper initially outlines the preparation methods and reviews the self-assembly strategies of SAQHs. Moreover, this article systematically reviews the regulatory rules of influencing factors on the self-assembly process and the final structure. Finally, this review also comprehensively summarizes the properties of SAQHs and their applications in bone, cartilage, and skin tissue engineering. The review breaks through the single-function limitation of traditional tissue engineering materials. Additionally, this paper focuses on the novel SAQHs with inherent biological activities and self-assembly properties, which integrates the core research results on their preparation, self-assembly strategies, regulatory rules, and multi-tissue engineering applications. This fills the current gap in the research on the correlation between self-assembly strategies and influencing factors of SAQHs. Furthermore, this article systematically clarifies the mechanisms and applicable conditions of different self-assembly strategies, and summarizes the application potential and optimization directions of SAQHs in various tissue engineering scenarios. The findings can provide important guidance for the application of SAQHs in the field of tissue engineering. • The preparation methods and self-assembly strategies of SAQHs are summarized. • The regulatory rules of influencing factors on the self-assembly process are outlined. • The properties of SAQHs and their applications in tissue engineering are reviewed.