Stimuli-responsive chitosan-starch injectable hydrogels combined with encapsulated adipose-derived stromal cells for articular cartilage regeneration

Tissue engineering strategies have been showing promising early results in articular cartilage lesions repair. Hydrogels based on natural origin polymers as chitosan glycerol-phosphate (CGP) thermo-sensitive formulation that can be implanted in a minimal invasive manner, represent a great promise as injectable scaffold choice for cartilage tissue engineering, but it lacks in mechanical properties. A different formulation, from which a firm texture gels results is, therefore, desirable.