Engineering biomimetic zonal properties in fibre-reinforced hydrogels for functional cartilage tissue engineering <i>in vitro</i>.

ABSTRACT: The functional regeneration of human articular cartilage is hampered by a lack of biomaterials and tissue engineering strategies that adequately capture the physiological depth-dependent compression properties of native tissue. Here, we demonstrate that photocrosslinkable gelatin-hyaluronic acid hydrogels reinforced with multiphasic polycaprolactone microfibre scaffolds form biomimetic soft network composites that serve as in vitro models mimicking the compressive and depth-dependent deformation characteristics of human cartilage. Mono- and multi-phasic gradient scaffolds with fibre spacings of 200, 400, and 800 μm were manufactured using melt electrowriting and embedded in the photocrosslinkable hydrogel system. Mechanical testing combined with finite element analysis revealed how

SUBMITTER: Pahoff S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12663666 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature