scholarly journals Hydrogels for the Application of Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering: A Review of Hydrogels

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.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-60
Author(s):  
Yawen Chen ◽  
Xinli Ouyang ◽  
Yide Wu ◽  
Shaojia Guo ◽  
Yongfang Xie ◽  
...  

Defects in articular cartilage injury and chronic osteoarthritis are very widespread and common, and the ability of injured cartilage to repair itself is limited. Stem cell-based cartilage tissue engineering provides a promising therapeutic option for articular cartilage damage. However, the application of the technique is limited by the number, source, proliferation, and differentiation of stem cells. The co-culture of mesenchymal stem cells and chondrocytes is available for cartilage tissue engineering, and mechanical stimulation is an important factor that should not be ignored. A combination of these two approaches, i.e., co-culture of mesenchymal stem cells and chondrocytes under mechanical stimulation, can provide sufficient quantity and quality of cells for cartilage tissue engineering, and when combined with scaffold materials and cytokines, this approach ultimately achieves the purpose of cartilage repair and reconstruction. In this review, we focus on the effects of co-culture and mechanical stimulation on mesenchymal stem cells and chondrocytes for articular cartilage tissue engineering. An in-depth understanding of the impact of co-culture and mechanical stimulation of mesenchymal stem cells and chondrocytes can facilitate the development of additional strategies for articular cartilage tissue engineering.


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.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 4187-4194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Bor Tsai ◽  
Wen-Tung Chen ◽  
Hsiu-Wen Chien ◽  
Wei-Hsuan Kuo ◽  
Meng-Jiy Wang

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Gadjanski

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 1900278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongyi Zhao ◽  
Changjiang Fan ◽  
Feng Chen ◽  
Yutai Sun ◽  
Yujun Xia ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 77B (2) ◽  
pp. 338-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Hung Chou ◽  
Winston T. K. Cheng ◽  
Chien-Cheng Lin ◽  
Chih-Hung Chang ◽  
Chien-Chen Tsai ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document