Title:A Review of Cartilage Defect Treatments Using Chitosan Hydrogels in
Experimental Animal Models
Volume: 25
Issue: 8
Author(s): Lais Caroline Souza-Silva, Cintia Cristina Santi Martignago, Homero Garcia Motta, Mirian Bonifacio, Ingrid Regina Avanzi, Lívia Assis, Daniel Araki Ribeiro, Julia Risso Parisi and Ana Claudia Rennó*
Affiliation:
- Department of Biosciences, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Silva Jardim Street, 136, Santos, SP,
11015020, Brazil
Keywords:
Hydrogel, chitosan, tissue engineering, cartilage repair, in vivo studies, review.
Abstract:
Introduction: Chitosan (CS) is a polycationic polysaccharide comprising glucosamine
and N-acetylglucosamine and constitutes a potential material for use in cartilage tissue engineering.
Moreover, CS hydrogels are able to promote the expression of cartilage matrix components
and reduce inflammatory and catabolic mediator production by chondrocytes. Although all the
positive outcomes, no review has analyzed the effects of CS hydrogels on cartilage repair in
animal models.
Methods: This study aimed to review the literature to examine the effects of CS hydrogels on
cartilage repair in experimental animal models. The search was done by the descriptors of the
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) defined below: “Chitosan,” “hydrogel,” “cartilage repair,”
and “in vivo.” A total of 420 articles were retrieved from the databases Pubmed, Scopus, Embase,
Lilacs, and Web of Science. After the eligibility analyses, this review reported 9 different
papers from the beginning of 2002 through the middle of 2022.
Results: It was found that cartilage repair was improved with the treatment of CS hydrogel, especially
the one enriched with cells. In addition, CS hydrogel produced an upregulation of genes
and proteins that act in the cartilage repair process, improving the biomechanical properties of
gait..
Conclusion: In conclusion, CS hydrogels were able to stimulate tissue ingrowth and accelerate
the process of cartilage repair in animal studies.
