2022, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (34): 5569-5576

Advantages and potential of bionic hydrogels in cartilage tissue engineering

Hou Yuxi1, Zhang Ran1, Wu Xiuping1, Zhang Qingmei2, Li Bing1   

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Hydrogels are a kind of elastic biomaterials with smooth surfaces and high water contents, which are expected to be candidates for cartilage regeneration.
OBJECTIVE: To review the latest research achievements and the progress of bionic hydrogels in cartilage tissue engineering.
METHODS: Articles published between 1986 and 2021 in the Web of Science and PubMed databases were searched by the first author with the key words “hydrogel, cartilage regeneration, cartilage defect, cartilage tissue engineering”. A total of 3 665 articles were primarily examined, and 86 articles were analyzed and summarized after screening.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) Bionic hydrogel is used for synthesizing biomimetic natural polymer hydrogels, including protein-based materials (such as gelatin, collagen and silk fibroin) and polysaccharide materials (such as hyaluronic acid, chitosan and alginate). Synthetic polymers contain poly(vinyl alcohol), polyethylene glycol, polylactic acid and poly lactide-glycolide copolymer. These materials have their own advantages and disadvantages. Through cross-linking, bionic hydrogels can be synthesized with more advantages, avoiding the shortage of some raw materials. (2) At the present stage, the bionic hydrogel materials studied have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, the ultraviolet crosslinked chondroitin sulfate and polyethylene glycol material has certain anti-inflammatory properties and can also promote cartilage tissue regeneration, but its ability to promote the proliferation and maturation of chondrocytes needs to be strengthened. The gelatin-hydroxyapatite material prepared by ultraviolet crosslinking has high cell inoculation efficiency and excellent biocompatibility. However, no experiments have been performed to inoculated human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on it for experimental observation, and the experimental environment is not complex enough and the observation period is short, which still needs further verification. Polyethylene glycol-dimethacrylic acid can promote the formation of cartilage matrix with a wide range of compression modulus, but it also has some side effects in the process of improving the formation of cartilage matrix. (3) To sum up, bionic hydrogel is a new material with great advantages and potential applications. There do not exist perfect biomimetic hydrogel materials that can be applied for cartilage defects in clinic. Biomimetic hydrogel materials with more complete properties need to be further studied in the future.
Key words: hydrogel, bionic, cartilage defect, tissue engineering, cross-linking, mechanical properties, biological properties, raw materials