In Situ Forming Cellulose Nanofibril-Reinforced Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel for Cartilage Regeneration

Hyaluronic acid (HA) based hydrogels are one of most functional natural biomaterials in the field of cartilage tissue engineering (CTE). Even with the promising advantages of HA hydrogels, the complicated mechanical properties of the native cartilage have not been realized, and fabricating HA hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties to make them practical in CTE still remains a current challenge. Here, a strategy that integrates hydrogels and nanomaterials is shown to form a HA hydrogel with sufficient mechanical loading for cartilage tissue production and recombination. Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are promising nanomaterial candidates as they possess high mechanical strength and excellent biocompatibility. In this study, we developed methacrylate-functionalized CNFs that are able to photo-crosslink with methacrylated HA to fabricate HA/CNF nanocomposite hydrogels. The present composite hydrogels with a compressive modulus of 0.46 ± 0.05 MPa showed adequate compressive strength (0.198 ± 0.009 MPa) and restorability, which can be expected to employ as a stress-bearing tissue such as articular cartilage. Besides, this nanocomposite hydrogel could provide a good microenvironment for bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell proliferation, as well as chondrogenic differentiation, and exhibit prominent repair effect in the full-thickness cartilage defect model of SD rats. These results suggest that the HA/CNF nanocomposite hydrogel creates a new possibility for fabricating a scaffold in CTE.