A Photoannealed Granular Hydrogel Facilitating Hyaline Cartilage Regeneration via Improving Chondrogenic Phenotype

Hydrogel-based chondrocyte implantation presents a promising tissue engineering strategy for cartilage repair. However, the widely used elastic hydrogels usually restrict cell volume expansion and induce the dedifferentiation of encapsulated chondrocytes. To address this limitation, a photoannealed granular hydrogel (GH) composed of hyaluronic acid, polyethylene glycol, and gelatin was formulated for cartilage regeneration in this study. The unannealed GH prepared by Diels–Alder cross-linked microgels could be mixed with chondrocytes and delivered to cartilage defects by injection, after which light was introduced to anneal the scaffold, leading to the formation of a stable and microporous chondrocyte deploying scaffold. The in vitro studies showed that GH could promote the volume expansion and morphology recovery of chondrocytes and significantly improve their chondrogenic phenotype compared to the nongranular hydrogel (nGH) with similar compositions. Further in vivo studies of subcutaneous culture and the rat full-thickness cartilage defect model proved that chondrocyte loaded GH could significantly stimulate hyaline cartilage matrix deposition and connection, therefore facilitating hyaline-like cartilage regeneration. Finally, the mechanistic study revealed that GH might improve chondrogenic phenotype via activating the AMP-activated protein kinase/glycolysis axis. This study proves the great feasibility of GHs as in situ chondrocyte deploying scaffolds for cartilage regeneration and brings new insights in designing hydrogel scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering.