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Review
. 2021 Dec 14;7(4):263.
doi: 10.3390/gels7040263.

Enhancing Stem Cell Therapy for Cartilage Repair in Osteoarthritis-A Hydrogel Focused Approach

Yisi Liu  1   2   3   4   5 , Meng Wang  2 , Yixuan Luo  2 , Qianyi Liang  2 , Yin Yu  2 , Fei Chen  2 , Jun Yao  1   3   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Enhancing Stem Cell Therapy for Cartilage Repair in Osteoarthritis-A Hydrogel Focused Approach

Yisi Liu et al. Gels. .

Abstract

Stem cells hold tremendous promise for the treatment of cartilage repair in osteoarthritis. In addition to their multipotency, stem cells possess immunomodulatory effects that can alleviate inflammation and enhance cartilage repair. However, the widely clinical application of stem cell therapy to cartilage repair and osteoarthritis has proven difficult due to challenges in large-scale production, viability maintenance in pathological tissue site and limited therapeutic biological activity. This review aims to provide a perspective from hydrogel-focused approach to address few key challenges in stem cell-based therapy for cartilage repair and highlight recent progress in advanced hydrogels, particularly microgels and dynamic hydrogels systems for improving stem cell survival, retention and regulation of stem cell fate. Finally, progress in hydrogel-assisted gene delivery and genome editing approaches for the development of next generation of stem cell therapy for cartilage repair in osteoarthritis are highlighted.

Keywords: cartilage repair; hydrogel; osteoarthritis; stem cell.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic description of utilizing injectable microgels and bioadhesive hydrogels to increase cell survival and retention. (Created with BioRender.com).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) MSCs-loading supramolecular hydrogels applied for cartilage tissue regeneration; (B) Chemical structures of injectable HA hydrogels crosslinked by host-guest interaction between β -Cd and Ad, (C) Supramolecular hydrogels carrying MSCs showed better chondrogenic efficiency than MSCs only group, according to the relative quantification of mRNA levels for chondrogenic markers at days 14 and 28 (n = 4, * p < 0.05, *** p < 0.001) [44].
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) MSCs-loading supramolecular hydrogels applied for cartilage tissue regeneration; (B) Chemical structures of injectable HA hydrogels crosslinked by host-guest interaction between β -Cd and Ad, (C) Supramolecular hydrogels carrying MSCs showed better chondrogenic efficiency than MSCs only group, according to the relative quantification of mRNA levels for chondrogenic markers at days 14 and 28 (n = 4, * p < 0.05, *** p < 0.001) [44].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic description of materials-mediated gene delivery and genetically engineered MSCs for cartilage repair and osteoarthritis. (Created with BioRender.com).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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