scholarly journals Advanced Hydrogels for Cartilage Tissue Engineering: Recent Progress and Future Directions

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 4199
Author(s):  
Mahshid Hafezi ◽  
Saied Nouri Khorasani ◽  
Mohadeseh Zare ◽  
Rasoul Esmaeely Neisiany ◽  
Pooya Davoodi

Cartilage is a tension- and load-bearing tissue and has a limited capacity for intrinsic self-healing. While microfracture and arthroplasty are the conventional methods for cartilage repair, these methods are unable to completely heal the damaged tissue. The need to overcome the restrictions of these therapies for cartilage regeneration has expanded the field of cartilage tissue engineering (CTE), in which novel engineering and biological approaches are introduced to accelerate the development of new biomimetic cartilage to replace the injured tissue. Until now, a wide range of hydrogels and cell sources have been employed for CTE to either recapitulate microenvironmental cues during a new tissue growth or to compel the recovery of cartilaginous structures via manipulating biochemical and biomechanical properties of the original tissue. Towards modifying current cartilage treatments, advanced hydrogels have been designed and synthesized in recent years to improve network crosslinking and self-recovery of implanted scaffolds after damage in vivo. This review focused on the recent advances in CTE, especially self-healing hydrogels. The article firstly presents the cartilage tissue, its defects, and treatments. Subsequently, introduces CTE and summarizes the polymeric hydrogels and their advances. Furthermore, characterizations, the advantages, and disadvantages of advanced hydrogels such as multi-materials, IPNs, nanomaterials, and supramolecular are discussed. Afterward, the self-healing hydrogels in CTE, mechanisms, and the physical and chemical methods for the synthesis of such hydrogels for improving the reformation of CTE are introduced. The article then briefly describes the fabrication methods in CTE. Finally, this review presents a conclusion of prevalent challenges and future outlooks for self-healing hydrogels in CTE applications.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Focaroli ◽  
Gabriella Teti ◽  
Viviana Salvatore ◽  
Isabella Orienti ◽  
Mirella Falconi

Articular cartilage is a highly organized tissue with complex biomechanical properties. However, injuries to the cartilage usually lead to numerous health concerns and often culminate in disabling symptoms, due to the poor intrinsic capacity of this tissue for self-healing. Although various approaches are proposed for the regeneration of cartilage, its repair still represents an enormous challenge for orthopedic surgeons. The field of tissue engineering currently offers some of the most promising strategies for cartilage restoration, in which assorted biomaterials and cell-based therapies are combined to develop new therapeutic regimens for tissue replacement. The current study describes thein vitrobehavior of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADSCs) encapsulated within calcium/cobalt (Ca/Co) alginate beads. These novel chondrogenesis-promoting scaffolds take advantage of the synergy between the alginate matrix and Co+2ions, without employing costly growth factors (e.g., transforming growth factor betas (TGF-βs) or bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs)) to direct hADSC differentiation into cartilage-producing chondrocytes.


Osteology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 149-174
Author(s):  
Naveen Jeyaraman ◽  
Gollahalli Shivashankar Prajwal ◽  
Madhan Jeyaraman ◽  
Sathish Muthu ◽  
Manish Khanna

The field of tissue engineering has revolutionized the world in organ and tissue regeneration. With the robust research among regenerative medicine experts and researchers, the plausibility of regenerating cartilage has come into the limelight. For cartilage tissue engineering, orthopedic surgeons and orthobiologists use the mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) of various origins along with the cytokines, growth factors, and scaffolds. The least utilized MSCs are of dental origin, which are the richest sources of stromal and progenitor cells. There is a paradigm shift towards the utilization of dental source MSCs in chondrogenesis and cartilage regeneration. Dental-derived MSCs possess similar phenotypes and genotypes like other sources of MSCs along with specific markers such as dentin matrix acidic phosphoprotein (DMP) -1, dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteopontin (OPN), bone sialoprotein (BSP), and STRO-1. Concerning chondrogenicity, there is literature with marginal use of dental-derived MSCs. Various studies provide evidence for in-vitro and in-vivo chondrogenesis by dental-derived MSCs. With such evidence, clinical trials must be taken up to support or refute the evidence for regenerating cartilage tissues by dental-derived MSCs. This article highlights the significance of dental-derived MSCs for cartilage tissue regeneration.


Author(s):  
Hamed Alizadeh Sardroud ◽  
Tasker Wanlin ◽  
Xiongbiao Chen ◽  
B. Frank Eames

Chondrocytes that are impregnated within hydrogel constructs sense applied mechanical force and can respond by expressing collagens, which are deposited into the extracellular matrix (ECM). The intention of most cartilage tissue engineering is to form hyaline cartilage, but if mechanical stimulation pushes the ratio of collagen type I (Col1) to collagen type II (Col2) in the ECM too high, then fibrocartilage can form instead. With a focus on Col1 and Col2 expression, the first part of this article reviews the latest studies on hyaline cartilage regeneration within hydrogel constructs that are subjected to compression forces (one of the major types of the forces within joints) in vitro. Since the mechanical loading conditions involving compression and other forces in joints are difficult to reproduce in vitro, implantation of hydrogel constructs in vivo is also reviewed, again with a focus on Col1 and Col2 production within the newly formed cartilage. Furthermore, mechanotransduction pathways that may be related to the expression of Col1 and Col2 within chondrocytes are reviewed and examined. Also, two recently-emerged, novel approaches of load-shielding and synchrotron radiation (SR)–based imaging techniques are discussed and highlighted for future applications to the regeneration of hyaline cartilage. Going forward, all cartilage tissue engineering experiments should assess thoroughly whether fibrocartilage or hyaline cartilage is formed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 166-180
Author(s):  
Maria-Minodora Marin ◽  
Madalina Georgiana Albu Kaya ◽  
George Mihail Vlasceanu ◽  
Jana Ghitman ◽  
Ionut Cristian Radu ◽  
...  

Type II collagen has been perceived as the indispensable element and plays a crucial role in cartilage tissue engineering. Thus, materials based on type II collagen have drawn farther attention in both academic and research for developing new systems for the cartilage regeneration. The disadvantage of using type II collagen as a biomaterial for tissue repairing is its reduced biomechanical properties. This can be solved by physical, enzymatic or chemical cross-linking processes, which provide biomaterials with the required mechanical properties for medical applications. To enhance type II collagen properties, crosslinked collagen scaffolds with different cross-linking agents were prepared by freeze-drying technique. The present research work studied the synthesis of type II collagen biomaterials with and without crosslinking agents. Scaffolds morphology was observed by MicroCT, showing in all cases an appropriate microstructure for biological applications, and the mechanical studies were performed using compressive tests. DSC showed an increase in denaturation temperature with an increase in cross-linking agent concentration. FTIR suggested that the secondary structure of collagen is not affected after the cross-linking; supplementary, to confirm the characteristic triple-helix conformation of collagen, the CD investigation was performed. The results showed that the physical-chemical properties of type II collagen were improved by cross-linking treatments.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 714
Author(s):  
Alvin Kai-Xing Lee ◽  
Yen-Hong Lin ◽  
Chun-Hao Tsai ◽  
Wan-Ting Chang ◽  
Tsung-Li Lin ◽  
...  

Cartilage injury is the main cause of disability in the United States, and it has been projected that cartilage injury caused by osteoarthritis will affect 30% of the entire United States population by the year 2030. In this study, we modified hyaluronic acid (HA) with γ-poly(glutamic) acid (γ-PGA), both of which are common biomaterials used in cartilage engineering, in an attempt to evaluate them for their potential in promoting cartilage regeneration. As seen from the results, γ-PGA-GMA and HA, with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) as the photo-crosslinker, could be successfully fabricated while retaining the structural characteristics of γ-PGA and HA. In addition, the storage moduli and loss moduli of the hydrogels were consistent throughout the curing durations. However, it was noted that the modification enhanced the mechanical properties, the swelling equilibrium rate, and cellular proliferation, and significantly improved secretion of cartilage regeneration-related proteins such as glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and type II collagen (Col II). The cartilage tissue proof with Alcian blue further demonstrated that the modification of γ-PGA with HA exhibited suitability for cartilage tissue regeneration and displayed potential for future cartilage tissue engineering applications. This study built on the previous works involving HA and further showed that there are unlimited ways to modify various biomaterials in order to further bring cartilage tissue engineering to the next level.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (03) ◽  
pp. 149-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsu-Wei Fang

Cartilage injuries may be caused by trauma, biomechanical imbalance, or degenerative changes of joint. Unfortunately, cartilage has limited capability to spontaneous repair once damaged and may lead to progressive damage and degeneration. Cartilage tissue-engineering techniques have emerged as the potential clinical strategies. An ideal tissue-engineering approach to cartilage repair should offer good integration into both the host cartilage and the subchondral bone. Cells, scaffolds, and growth factors make up the tissue engineering triad. One of the major challenges for cartilage tissue engineering is cell source and cell numbers. Due to the limitations of proliferation for mature chondrocytes, current studies have alternated to use stem cells as a potential source. In the recent years, a lot of novel biomaterials has been continuously developed and investigated in various in vitro and in vivo studies for cartilage tissue engineering. Moreover, stimulatory factors such as bioactive molecules have been explored to induce or enhance cartilage formation. Growth factors and other additives could be added into culture media in vitro, transferred into cells, or incorporated into scaffolds for in vivo delivery to promote cellular differentiation and tissue regeneration.Based on the current development of cartilage tissue engineering, there exist challenges to overcome. How to manipulate the interactions between cells, scaffold, and signals to achieve the moderation of implanted composite differentiate into moderate stem cells to differentiate into hyaline cartilage to perform the optimum physiological and biomechanical functions without negative side effects remains the target to pursue.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Er-Yuan Chuang ◽  
Chih-Wei Chiang ◽  
Pei-Chun Wong ◽  
Chih-Hwa Chen

The treatment of articular cartilage damage is a major task in the medical science of orthopedics. Hydrogels possess the ability to form multifunctional cartilage grafts since they possess polymeric swellability upon immersion in an aqueous phase. Polymeric hydrogels are capable of physiological swelling and greasing, and they possess the mechanical behavior required for use as articular cartilage substitutes. The chondrogenic phenotype of these materials may be enhanced by embedding living cells. Artificial hydrogels fabricated from biologically derived and synthesized polymeric materials are also used as tissue-engineering scaffolds; with their controlled degradation profiles, the release of stimulatory growth factors can be achieved. In order to make use of these hydrogels, cartilage implants were formulated in the laboratory to demonstrate the bionic mechanical behaviors of physiological cartilage. This paper discusses developments concerning the use of polymeric hydrogels for substituting injured cartilage tissue and assisting tissue growth. These gels are designed with consideration of their polymeric classification, mechanical strength, manner of biodegradation, limitations of the payload, cellular interaction, amount of cells in the 3D hydrogel, sustained release for the model drug, and the different approaches for incorporation into adjacent organs. This article also summarizes the different advantages, disadvantages, and the future prospects of hydrogels.


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