Intraarticularly injectable silk hydrogel microspheres with enhanced mechanical and structural stability to attenuate osteoarthritis

Cytophilic Agarose-Epoxide-Amine Cryogels Engineered with Granulated Microstructures

“…The essential role of agarose for the physical integrity of ABT cryogels is corroborated by the fact that when attempting with BT mixture alone in this work, no gel is formed (Figure S1). It is worth noting that since ring opening of epoxide by hydroxyl groups often requires alkaline conditions such as the addition of NaOH to ionize OH for nucleophilic reaction, , our experimental condition is unlikely for agarose to be chemically cross-linked by bisepoxide BDDE. By labeling the cryogels with an amine-reactive fluorescent probe FITC, the macroporous nature of the hydrated cryogels is revealed via confocal imaging (Figure ).…”

“…The strategy builds on the thermal gelation property of agarose as well as capitalizes on the reaction of bisepoxides and multifunctional polyetheramines in water to in situ form polymers capable of temperature-induced phase separation as exemplified by lower critical solution temperature (LCST) characteristics. − The rationale is that by carrying out this reaction in an agarose solution, we can achieve the dual goals of leveraging both the amine characteristics of the polyetheramines for desired cell affinity and LCST-mediated phase separation behavior of the epoxide-amine-derived polymers to create a microstructured morphology in the final gel products. The specific bisepoxide selected for this study is 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether (BDDE), a bifunctional epoxide commonly used as a biocompatible cross-linker for collagen, − hyaluronan, − polyethylenimine, silk, and chitosan . The polyetheramine used is one with the trade name Jeffamine T403, a water-soluble triamine featuring a poly­(propylene oxide) (PPO) structure.…”

Early diagnosis of heterotopic ossification with a NIR fluorescent probe by targeting type II collagen

“…Due to the lack of blood supply to adult articular cartilage, 29,30 administration of drugs or probes for arthritis treatment or imaging is often limited to local injection into the articular cavity, 31–33 which has many side effects including pain and catastrophic joint infection. In contrast, the cartilage lesion of HO is highly vascular, 20,34 which creates perfect conditions for the systemic application of our probe to cartilage via blood vessels.…”

Biological Scaffolds Assembled with Magnetic Nanoparticles for Bone Tissue Engineering: A Review

“…Silk fibroin (SF), a protein obtained from silkworms, has excellent biocompatibility and was approved as a biomaterial by the FDA in 1993. In recent years, it has been widely used in the research on biological scaffolds [ 122 ]. Dediu and co-workers [ 73 ] assembled biological scaffolds using SF as the matrix.…”