School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, No. 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2023 Aug 14;9(8):4855-4866. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.2c01547. Epub 2023 Jun 30.
Cartilage injury is a very common joint disease, and cartilage repair is a great challenge in clinical treatment due to the specific structure of cartilage tissue and its microenvironment . The injectable self-healing hydrogel is a very promising candidate as a cartilage repair material because of its special network structure, high water retention and self-healing properties. In this work, a self-healing hydrogel cross-linked by host-guest interaction between cyclodextrin and cholic acid was developed. The host material was composed of β-cyclodextrin and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-modified poly(l-glutamic acid) (P(LGA--GM--GC)), while the guest material was chitosan modified by cholic acid, glycidyl methacrylate, and (2,3-epoxypropyl)trimethylammonium chloride (EPTAC) (QCSG-CA). The host-guest interaction self-healing hydrogels, named as HG hydrogels (HG gel), exhibited excellent injectability and self-healable property, and the self-healing efficiency was greater than 90%. Furthermore, in order to enhance the mechanical properties and slow down the degradation of the HG gel , the second network was constructed by photo-cross-linking . Biocompatibility tests showed that the enhanced multi-interaction hydrogel (MI gel) was extremely suitable for cartilage tissue engineering both and . In addition, the adipose derived stem cells (ASCs) in MI gel were able to differentiate cartilage effectively in the presence of inducing agents. Subsequently, the MI gel without ASCs was transplanted into rat cartilage defects for the regeneration of cartilage. After 3 months postimplantation, new cartilage tissue was successfully regenerated in a rat cartilage defect. All results indicated that the injectable self-healing host-guest hydrogels have important potential applications in cartilage injury repair.
软骨损伤是一种非常常见的关节疾病，由于软骨组织的特殊结构及其微环境，软骨修复是临床治疗中的一大挑战。可注射自修复水凝胶因其特殊的网络结构、高保水性和自修复性能，是一种很有前途的软骨修复材料。在这项工作中，开发了一种通过主体-客体相互作用交联的自修复水凝胶，主体由环糊精和胆酸组成，客体由胆酸、甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酯和（2,3-环氧丙基）三甲氯化铵改性壳聚糖（QCSG-CA）组成。这种主体-客体相互作用自修复水凝胶，命名为 HG 水凝胶（HG 凝胶），具有优异的可注射性和自修复性，自修复效率大于 90%。此外，为了提高机械性能和减缓 HG 凝胶的降解速度，通过光交联构建了第二网络。生物相容性试验表明，增强型多相互作用水凝胶（MI 凝胶）非常适合软骨组织工程。此外，在诱导剂存在的情况下，MI 凝胶中的脂肪来源干细胞（ASCs）能够有效地分化为软骨。随后，将不含 ASCs 的 MI 凝胶移植到大鼠软骨缺损部位，以再生软骨。植入后 3 个月，大鼠软骨缺损处成功再生了新的软骨组织。所有结果表明，可注射自修复主体-客体水凝胶在软骨损伤修复中有重要的潜在应用价值。
