Novel β -TCP/PVA bilayered hydrogels with considerable physical and bio-functional properties for osteochondral repair

Abstract

Cartilage repairing grafts have been widely studied, and osteochondral replacement hydrogels have proven to be an excellent method in research and clinical fields. However, it has been difficult to simultaneously solve three main issues in osteochondral replacement preparation: surface lubrication, overall mechanical support and good simulations of cell regeneration. A novel integrated bilayered hydrogel osteochondral replacement was constructed by blending polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) in this study. Separated nano-ball milling with ultrasound dispersion prepared β-TCP demonstrated suitable properties of tiny particle size, high purity and ideal distribution, improving the mechanical properties of the novel integrated hydrogel, and providing a cartilage-like lubrication effect and high biocompatibility, including cytocompatibility and osteogenesis. The reinforcement of β-TCP and integrated molding technology enabled the hydrogel to demonstrate excellent component compatibility and good bonding between the two layers, which promoted the strengthening of the compression modulus and tensile modulus up to three times by mechanical testing. The surface lubrication properties of the novel osteochondral hydrogel were similar to the natural cartilage by friction coefficient characterization. The two layers of the novel integrated graft provided a considerable bio-function by co-culturing with chondrocytes and synovium mesenchymal stem cells: chondrocytes promoted adherence achieved by the upper density layer and better osteogenesis performance of the porous lower layer. The design of the bilayered β-TCP/PVA osteochondral hydrogel is promising for use in articular cartilage repair.

Carbon nanotube reinforced polyvinyl alcohol/biphasic calcium phosphate scaffold for bone tissue engineering

“…[35][36][37] In order to improve the cell attachment properties of PVA hydrogels, HA and BCP are frequently used. 2,11,17 As in our present research, on a pure PVA scaffold, there is rarely few cells observed on the surface, proving that pure PVA has a poor nonadhesive property. However, on PVA/BCP scaffolds, due to the incorporation of BCP micro-nano particles, much more cells are detected to be attached to the surface, and some cells have even begun to spread and proliferate.…”

“…[8][9][10] As a supporting material, PVA has gained popularity for tissue engineering applications, [11][12][13][14] especially as an osteochondral scaffold due to its good mechanical properties, non-toxicity, good biocompatibility and biotribological properties. [15][16][17] Asran et al 6 fabricated a bone scaffold by an electrospinning method. The results show that both the tensile strength and elastic modulus of PVA/n-HAp hydrogels are higher than those of pure PVA hydrogels.…”

“…With further increase in the n-HAp concentration, up to 10%, the tensile strength began to decrease. Yao et al 17 fabricated β-TCP/PVA bilayered hydrogels for osteochondral repairment. According to their findings, the tensile and compression properties of the hydrogel are markedly improved with the increase in the β-TCP concentration.…”

Fabrication of a Polycaprolactone/Alginate Bipartite Hybrid Scaffold for Osteochondral Tissue Using a Three-Dimensional Bioprinting System

“…Each hybrid scaffold was stacked in 12 layers. In this study, comparing with the conventional methods reported [ 26 , 27 , 28 ], a sophisticated scaffold could be printed in an arbitrary shape by computer-aided design (CAD) software. Moreover, the fabrication process was safe, since the use of solvents was not required.…”

Lubrication behaviors of PVA‐casted LSPEEK hydrogels in artificial cartilage repair

“…The low load‐bearing capacity, though, could play a major role in limiting the application of PVA in joint replacement. Blended hydrogels such as PVP‐PVA and β‐TCP/PVA have been prepared by repeated freezing and thawing methods to improve their mechanical strength and lubricating properties . Considering that excessive hydration may cause insufficient carrying capacity, researchers obtained cast‐drying PVA hydrogel with high mechanical strength and low permeability …”