Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2021 Dec;10(23):e2100777. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202100777. Epub 2021 Oct 13.
Convergent advances in the field of soft matter, macromolecular chemistry, and engineering have led to the development of biomaterials that possess autonomous, adaptive, and self-healing characteristics similar to living systems. These rationally designed biomaterials can surpass the capabilities of their parent material. Herein, the modification of hyaluronic acid (HA) to exhibit self-healing properties is described, and its physical and biological function both in vitro and in vivo is studied. The in vitro findings showed that self-healing HA designed to undergo self-repair improves lubrication, enhances free radical scavenging, and attenuates enzymatic degradation compared to unmodified HA. Longitudinal imaging following intraarticular injection of self-healing HA shows improved in vivo retention despite its low molecular weight. Concomitant with these functions, intraarticular injection of self-healing HA mitigates anterior cruciate ligament injury-mediated cartilage degeneration in rodents. This proof-of-concept study shows how incorporation of functional properties such as self-healing can be used to surpass the existing capabilities of biolubricants.
软物质、高分子化学和工程领域的融合进展，促使具有自主、自适应和自修复特性的生物材料得以发展，这些特性类似于生命系统。这些经过合理设计的生物材料可以超越其母体材料的性能。本文描述了透明质酸（HA）的改性，以展示其自修复特性，并研究了其在体外和体内的物理和生物学功能。体外研究结果表明，与未改性的 HA 相比，设计用于自我修复的自修复 HA 可改善润滑性能、增强自由基清除能力、减轻酶降解作用。尽管自修复 HA 的分子量较低，但关节内注射后进行的纵向成像显示其在体内的保留时间有所延长。与这些功能同时存在的是，关节内注射自修复 HA 可减轻啮齿动物前交叉韧带损伤介导的软骨退化。这项概念验证研究表明，如何将自修复等功能特性融入其中，可以用来超越生物润滑剂现有的性能。
