Animal Models Used for Testing Hydrogels in Cartilage Regeneration

Local cartilage or osteochondral lesions are painful and harmful. Besides pain and limited function of joints, cartilage defect is considered as one of the leading extrinsic risk factors for osteoarthritis (OA). Thus, clinicians and scientists have paid great attention to regenerative therapeutic methods for the early treatment of cartilaginous defects. Regenerative medicine, showing great hope for regenerating cartilage tissue, relies on the combination of biodegradable scaffolds and particular biological factors, such as growth factors, genetic cues. Among all biomaterials, hydrogels have become a promising type of scaffolds for simultaneous cell growth and drug delivery in cartilage tissue engineering. A wide range of animal models have been applied in testing repair with hydrogels in cartilage defects. This review summarized the current animal models used to test hydrogels technologies for the regeneration of cartilage. Advantages and disadvantages in the establishment of the cartilage defect animal models among different species were emphasized, as well as the feasibility of replication of diseases in animals.