Research progress in degradable hydrogels as articular cartilage repair materials

Abstract

Degradable hydrogels are widely used in the repair and regeneration of articular cartilage because of their good biocompatibility and biodegradability. Three application strategies of degradable hydrogels in cartilage tissue engineering were focused in this review. Firstly, the proteoglycan materials and nanocomposite materials for in-situ formed injectable hydrogels were reviewed. Secondly, the advantages and disadvantages of traditional technology for tissue engineering scaffolds and the preparation methods of combination of various technologies were systematically summarized. Importantly, the research progress of 3D printed tissue engineering scaffolds from pure cartilage to bone/cartilage integration, from single layer to multi-layer in recent years were summarized. Finally, the limitations of degradable hydrogel as articular cartilage scaffold material in micro-directional structure and bioactivity functionalization were discussed.It was prospected that developing highly biomimetic gradient scaffolds with multi-material, multi-scale and multi-inducement will be an important research direction of articular cartilage tissue engineering in the future.

Keywords

• hydrogel
• articular cartilage repair
• tissue engineering scaffold
• 3d printing
• bone/cartilage integration