Recent Developments and Current Applications of Hydrogels in Osteoarthritis.
Tianhao ZhaoZhanqi WeiWei ZhuXisheng WengPublished in: Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) (2022)
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative joint disease that causes disability if left untreated. The treatment of OA currently requires a proper delivery system that avoids the loss of therapeutic ingredients. Hydrogels are widely used in tissue engineering as a platform for carrying drugs and stem cells, and the anatomical environment of the limited joint cavity is suitable for hydrogel therapy. This review begins with a brief introduction to OA and hydrogels and illustrates the effects, including the analgesic effects, of hydrogel viscosupplementation on OA. Then, considering recent studies of hydrogels and OA, three main aspects, including drug delivery systems, mesenchymal stem cell entrapment, and cartilage regeneration, are described. Hydrogel delivery improves drug retention in the joint cavity, making it possible to deliver some drugs that are not suitable for traditional injection; hydrogels with characteristics similar to those of the extracellular matrix facilitate cell loading, proliferation, and migration; hydrogels can promote bone regeneration, depending on their own biochemical properties or on loaded proregenerative factors. These applications are interlinked and are often researched together.
Keyphrases
- tissue engineering
- extracellular matrix
- drug delivery
- knee osteoarthritis
- hyaluronic acid
- stem cells
- wound healing
- drug release
- rheumatoid arthritis
- bone regeneration
- cell therapy
- cancer therapy
- multiple sclerosis
- single cell
- emergency department
- replacement therapy
- combination therapy
- adverse drug
- case control
- spinal cord injury