Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Shriners Hospitals for Children-Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Aug 4;23(15):8662. doi: 10.3390/ijms23158662.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that is characterized by inflammation of the joints, degradation of cartilage, and the remodeling of other joint tissues. Due to the absence of disease-modifying drugs for OA, current clinical treatment options are often only effective at slowing down disease progression and focus mainly on pain management. The field of tissue engineering has therefore been focusing on developing strategies that could be used not only to alleviate symptoms of OA but also to regenerate the damaged tissue. Hyaluronic acid (HA), an integral component of both the synovial fluid and articular cartilage, has gained widespread usage in developing hydrogels that deliver cells and biomolecules to the OA joint thanks to its biocompatibility and ability to support cell growth and the chondrogenic differentiation of encapsulated stem cells, providing binding sites for growth factors. Tissue-engineering strategies have further attempted to improve the role of HA as an OA therapeutic by developing diverse modified HA delivery platforms for enhanced joint retention and controlled drug release. This review summarizes recent advances in developing HA-based hydrogels for OA treatment and provides additional insights into how HA-based therapeutics could be further improved to maximize their potential as a viable treatment option for OA.
骨关节炎（OA）是一种退行性关节疾病，其特征为关节炎症、软骨降解和其他关节组织的重塑。由于 OA 缺乏疾病修饰药物，目前的临床治疗选择通常仅能有效减缓疾病进展，主要侧重于疼痛管理。因此，组织工程领域一直专注于开发策略，不仅可以缓解 OA 的症状，还可以再生受损组织。透明质酸（HA）是滑液和关节软骨的固有成分，由于其生物相容性和支持细胞生长以及包封干细胞的软骨分化的能力，使其能够为生长因子提供结合位点，因此已广泛用于开发水凝胶以将细胞和生物分子递送到 OA 关节。组织工程策略还通过开发各种改良的 HA 递送平台来提高 HA 在 OA 治疗中的作用，以增强关节保留和控制药物释放。本综述总结了用于 OA 治疗的基于 HA 的水凝胶的最新进展，并提供了更多的见解，说明如何进一步改善基于 HA 的治疗方法，以最大限度地发挥其作为 OA 可行治疗选择的潜力。
