Biomimetic injectable hydrogel microspheres with enhanced lubrication and controllable drug release for the treatment of osteoarthritis

The occurrence of osteoarthritis(OA)is highly associated with the reduced lubrication property of the joint,where a progressive and irreversible damage of the articular cartilage and consecutive inflammatory response dominate the mechanism.In this study,bioinspired by the super-lubrication property of cartilage and catecholamine chemistry of mussel,we successfully developed injectable hydrogel microspheres with enhanced lubrication and controllable drug release for OA treatment.Particularly,the lubricating microspheres(GelMA@DMA-MPC)were fabricated by dip coating a self-adhesive polymer(DMA-MPC,synthesized by free radical copolymerization)on superficial surface of photo-crosslinked methacrylate gelatin hydrogel microspheres(GelMA,prepared via microfluidic technology),and encapsulated with an anti-inflammatory drug of diclofenac sodium(DS)to achieve the dual-functional performance.The tribological test and drug release test showed the enhanced lubrication and sustained drug release of the GelMA@DMA-MPC microspheres.In addition,the functionalized microspheres were intra-articularly injected into the rat knee joint with an OA model,and the biological tests including qRT-PCR,immunofluorescence staining assay,X-ray radiography and histological staining assay all revealed that the biocompatible microspheres provided significant therapeutic effect against the development of OA.In summary,the injectable hydrogel microspheres developed herein greatly improved lubrication and achieved sustained local drug release,therefore representing a facile and promising technique for the treatment of OA.

Mechanics analysis of thin-walled box continuous girder with variable cross-sections in considering effect of large deflection and shear lag

In order to study the mechanics behavior of a thin-walled box continuous girder with variable crosssections,using potential variation theories,considering the effect of shear lag of flange’s stress and the nonlinear geometry of vertical displacement,and evolving five generalized displacements with the spline function,the large deflection problem of the thin-walled box continuous girder with variable cross-section was transformed to a nonlinear algebraic equation,which was solved using the Newton-Raphon iterative method.The results of the calculation show that different shear lag warp functions to the cantilever,top and bottom plate should be taken to analyze the mechanics behavior of the thin-walled box continuous girder reliably.The thin-walled box continuous girder with variable cross-sections has more reasonable stress state and is more adaptable for the longitudinal change of internal forces than that with equal crosssections.The effect of large deflection on the stress and displacement of the thin-walled box continuous girder with variable cross-sections depends on the values of the load.