Advanced healthcare materialsOct 13, 2025

Scaffold-supported bone repair helps natural stem cells regenerate cartilage in joint defects

Regenerative Health Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jan 7, 2026

Abstract

A dual induction scaffold promotes effective osteochondral repair by recruiting endogenous skeletal stem cells.

Osteochondral defects can lead to damage in both cartilage and the underlying bone.
Chondrogenic scaffolds alone resulted in cartilage regeneration but caused significant bone collapse and joint deformation over 24 weeks.
Combining osteogenic and chondrogenic scaffolds helped maintain joint structure by promoting the growth and recruitment of specific skeletal stem cells.
The addition of external mesenchymal stromal cells did not enhance the outcomes compared to the scaffold alone.
A scaffold designed to recruit the body's own stem cells for bone regeneration is crucial for successful repair of osteochondral defects.

Simplified

Osteochondral defects involve concurrent damage to cartilage and the subchondral bone. Here, a cell-free scaffold is presented, consisting of a 3D-printed bioceramic base combined with a Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA)-Kartogenin (KGN) hydrogel. This dual induction scaffold is engineered to promote osteogenesis while simultaneously providing localized chondrogenic stimulation. The rabbit bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells are added as a positive control, while the blank osteochondral defects without scaffold implantation are set as a negative control. It is hypothesized that effective regeneration of subchondral bone is a prerequisite for functional cartilage repair, with effective recruitment of endogenous skeletal stem cells (SSCs). In rabbit osteochondral defects, chondrogenic scaffolds alone regenerated cartilage but caused severe subchondral bone collapse and joint surface deformation persisting through 24 weeks. In contrast, combining osteogenic scaffolds with chondrogenic constructs preserved joint morphology by promoting Gli-1⁺ and Sca-1⁺ skeletal stem cell recruitment and proliferation. Interestingly, adding exogenous mesenchymal stromal cells offered no further benefit. Together, a scaffold capable of recruiting endogenous skeletal stem cells to regenerate subchondral bone is essential for effective osteochondral repair and demonstrates comparable efficacy to stem cell transplantation, demonstrating the viability of a scaffold-only strategy for articular cartilage and subchondral bone tissue regeneration.

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Scaffold-supported bone repair helps natural stem cells regenerate cartilage in joint defects

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