Abstract

Articular cartilage (AC) damage is quite common, but due to AC’s poor self-healing ability, the damage can easily develop into osteoarthritis (OA). To solve this problem, we developed a microsphere/hydrogel system that provides two growth factors that promote cartilage repair: transforming growth factor-β3 (TGF-β3) to enhance cartilage tissue formation and ghrelin synergy TGF-β to significantly enhance the chondrogenic differentiation. The hydrogel and microspheres were characterized in vitro, and the biocompatibility of the system was verified. Double emulsion solvent extraction technology (w/o/w) is used to encapsulate TGF-β3 and ghrelin into microspheres, and these microspheres are encapsulated in a hydrogel to continuously release TGF-β3 and ghrelin. According to the chondrogenic differentiation ability of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro, the concentrations of the two growth factors were optimized to promote cartilage regeneration.

Highlights

  • Articular cartilage (AC) injury is very common, and the incidence of AC injury was found to be 57% in 1000 patients undergoing knee arthroscopy [1]

  • We studied the effects of the combination of 10 ng/mL transforming growth factor-β3 (TGF-β3) and different concentrations of ghrelin (1, 10 and 100 nM) on the chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)

  • Regarding the gene expression related to the chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs, our results proved that the combination of 10 ng/mL TGF-β3 and

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Summary

Introduction

Articular cartilage (AC) injury is very common, and the incidence of AC injury was found to be 57% in 1000 patients undergoing knee arthroscopy [1]. As a tissue without blood supply, nerve tissue or lymph nodes, ACs lack a self-healing ability [2]. Once an AC is injured, without proper and timely intervention, AC damage may develop into osteoarthritis (OA). The treatment of cartilage injury has been extensively studied since the last century [3], such as bone marrow-stimulating techniques, osteochondral transplantation, autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) and stem cells transplantation, these methods have disadvantages such as a lack of biomechanical and viscoelastic characteristics of the cartilage produced, limited donor sources, complicated surgery, long recovery time and potential tissue malformations in vivo [4]. There is an urgent need to develop new treatments for AC injury

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