Photocrosslinkable carbohydrate-based hydrogels for cartilage regeneration: Current insights and future perspectives

Osteochondral defects, involving degeneration of articular cartilage and underlying bone, remain a major challenge in orthopedics due to the tissue's limited self-repair capacity. Traditional treatments often fail to fully restore cartilage structure and function, creating a need for advanced biomaterials to support regeneration. Hydrogels, with their high water content, biocompatibility, and tunable properties, are promising for cartilage tissue engineering. Photocrosslinkable hydrogels have gained attention for their spatiotemporal control, rapid in situ gelation, and ability to form stable scaffolds under light exposure. They offer tunable mechanical strength, degradation rates, and cellular compatibility, making them suitable for cartilage repair. Carbohydrate-based hydrogels, especially those mimicking the extracellular matrix (ECM), show strong potential due to their structural plasticity, bioactivity, and support of chondrocyte function. Their molecular structures, with variations in chain length and branching, allow fine-tuning of physicochemical properties for enhanced performance. This review highlights recent progress in photocrosslinkable carbohydrate-based hydrogels for cartilage regeneration, focusing on fabrication methods, crosslinking strategies, and chemical modifications such as methacrylation and acrylation. It also discusses the advantages of photopolymerization, including efficiency and low cytotoxicity, and its role in improving mechanical properties and chondrogenic potential. Finally, current challenges and future clinical prospects are addressed.