Ideal cartilage tissue engineering requires scaffolds featuring good biocompatibility, large pore structure, high mechanical strength, as well as minimal invasion procedure. Although significant progress has been made in the development of polymer scaffolds, the construction of smart systems with all the desired properties is still emerging as a challenge. The thermogels of stereocomplex 4-arm poly(ethylene glycol)-polylactide (PEG-PLA) (scPLAgel ) and stereocomplex cholesterol-modified 4-arm PEG-PLA (scPLA-Cholgel ) from the equimolar enantiomeric 4-arm PEG-PLA and 4-arm PEG-PLA-Chol, respectively, are fabricated as scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering. scPLA-Cholgel shows lower critical gelation temperature, higher mechanical strength, larger pore size, better chondrocyte adhesion, and slower degradation compared to scPLAgel as the benefit of cholesterol modification, which is more appropriate for cartilage regeneration. Moreover, the preservation of morphology, biomechanical property, cartilaginous specific matrix, as well as cartilaginous gene expressions of engineered cartilage mediated by scPLA-Cholgel are proven superior to those by scPLAgel . scPLA-Cholgel serves as a promising chondrocyte carrier for cartilage tissue engineering and gives an alternative solution to clinical cartilage repair.
Keywords: cartilage regeneration; cholesterol; chondrocyte; optimized performance; stereocomplex polylactide thermogels.
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