RESUMO
The maintenance of high load-bearing tissues and joint lubrication is essential for suppressing osteoarthritis. The lubrication of natural joints is mainly attributed to the hydration lubrication mechanism of articular cartilage. Phospholipids on the cartilage surface attract water molecules to form a tough hydrated layer to reduce friction. In this work, inspired by the phosphatidylcholine lipids, we synthesized lubricated nanospheres by grafting hydrophilic polymer brushes and further synthesized a nanocomposite hydrogel. The addition of the lubricated nanospheres enhanced both the mechanical and lubricated properties of the hydrogel. The nanocomposite-lubricated hydrogel exhibited a friction coefficient 81.7% lower than the blank hydrogel because of grafting the polymer brushes. Also, the nanocomposite enhancement helped the hydrogel achieve high mechanical properties with a compressive strength of 6.63 MPa (50%). The nanocomposite hydrogel developed here could be a promising candidate material in bionic articular cartilage substitute materials.
Assuntos
Cartilagem Articular , Hidrogéis , Nanogéis , Polímeros , FosfatidilcolinasRESUMO
Healthy articular cartilage can achieve high load-bearing capacity and the most effective lubricated surface. Inspired by the articular cartilage, a lipid-lubricated hydrogel with excellent mechanical strength and remarkable lubrication was designed and synthesized. The lipid-lubricated hydrogel could contribute to high strength and stiffness (compressive strength of 5.8 MPa and compressive modulus of 4.7 MPa at 50% strain), and it could recover more than 98% of original mechanical properties in a short time after loading-unloading. In addition, the friction coefficient of lipid-lubricated hydrogel is low as 0.026, 5.3 times smaller than hydrogel without adding the liposomes. Overall, the hydrogel we studied holds the potential as a load-bearing soft tissue substitute for articular cartilage.
