Application of chitosan hydrogels in cartilage repair / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Chitosan has become a research hotspot of cartilage repair materials because of a wide range of biological sources, simple preparation processes and excellent biocompatibility. OBJECTIVE: To review the characteristics of chitosan hydrogels and their application in cartilage repair. METHODS: PubMed and CNKI databases were searched by computer with the keywords of "chitosan; chitosan hydrogel; cartilage repair; tissue engineering" in English and Chinese, respectively. The time range was from January 2000 to March 2018. After initial screening, the retained articles were further analyzed, concluded and summarized. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Chitosan has good biocompatibility, low toxicity, low immunogenicity, and can load multiple growth factors and seed cells with different physical or chemical improvements. Encouraging progress in tissue engineering cartilage repair has been achieved. With the development of technology and the understanding of cartilage and subchondral bone structure, the application range of chitosan biomimetic hydrogel has been broadened. However, the molecular mechanism and degradation process of chitosan in vivo still have a lot of controversies, and further research and exploration are needed.