Recent advances on gradient hydrogels in biomimetic cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

Articular cartilage (AC) is a seemingly simple tissue that has only one type of constituting cell and no blood vessels and nerves. In the early days of tissue engineering, cartilage appeared to be an easy and promising target for reconstruction and this was especially motivating because of widespread AC pathologies such as osteoarthritis and frequent sports-induced injuries. However, AC has proven to be anything but simple. Recreating the varying properties of its zonal structure is a challenge that has not yet been fully answered. This caused the shift in tissue engineering strategies toward bioinspired or biomimetic approaches that attempt to mimic and simulate as much as possible the structure and function of the native tissues. Hydrogels, particularly gradient hydrogels, have shown great potential as components of the biomimetic engineering of the cartilaginous tissue.

Engineered cartilage utilizing fetal cartilage-derived progenitor cells for cartilage repair

“…Factors affecting immediate adhesiveness of scaffold-less TECs are relatively unknown 4 . Previous studies have utilized various methods to enhance immediate adhesion, from fibrin glue to photopolymerization [37][38][39][40] . The cohesive strength associated with the degree of the cartilage gel's viscoelasticity may have played a role in the stickiness of our constructs to the defect area 41 .…”

Allogeneic chondrocyte implantation: What is stopping it from being a standard of care?

“…[29,30] Micro and nanochips containing these growth factors could be embedded in the scaffolds at graded concentrations which would help mimic the natural structure of articular cartilage. [31]…”

Recent Strategies in Fabrication of Gradient Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications

“…Because, gelatin contains RGD motif, it could support the effective attachment of osteoblast in bone. On the other hand, MκCA is similar to native glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and it mimicked the property of native cartilage tissue interfaces 63,64. Moreover, nanosilicate was added to each natural polymer solutions to enhance the shear thinning properties and mechanical stiffness of the gradient hydrogels.…”