Abstract
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.
Highlights
Chondrocytes are cells that are distributed in articular cartilage, and they account for less than 10% of the volume of the tissue [3]
Even though chondrocytes are distributed in the articular cartilage, they are responsible for production, secretion, organization, and maintenance of the organic component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) [3,4,5]
Collagen accounts for a large amount of the fibrous ultrastructure in articular cartilage [8,9,10]. e fibrils that polymerize via rodlike tropo-collagen molecular structure (1.4 mm in diameter and 300 nm in length) [6, 7] have a mean diameter around 25 to 40 nm
Summary
A second method, osteochondral autograft transplantation (mosaicplasty), involves the transfer of cartilage and subchondral bone from a nonload-bearing site to the damaged load-bearing site. This method is only applicable to a small defect because of the small amount of possible donor sites [41,42,43]. For the purpose of articular cartilage substitution, the hydrogels are created to be either resident substitutes for the replacement of injured cartilage or to be constituents loaded into cell that encourage or stimulate the regeneration of new tissue. In the use of functional hydrogel for treating articular cartilage damage, suitable manufacture approaches and superb bio-materials act as important parts in developing perfect injectable polymeric hydrogels which could be considered as bio-scaffolds for bone and articular cartilage tissue engineering uses. A detailed discussion regarding the classification, advantages, disadvantages, and future outlooks of these applied hydrogels is provided below
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