Injectable cell-laden microgels for regeneration of human articular cartilage tissue

This thesis reports a novel tissue engineering strategy using a facile, very low cost-based microfluidic technique to produce visible light crosslinked microgels composed of protein-based material for human articular cartilage tissue regeneration. By introducing a biocompatible bonding process, these protein-based microgels can be engineered into higher-order tissue like structure with additional ability for native tissue adhesion. This study demonstrates the superiority compared to conventional bulk hydrogel with encouraging potential of this system to be applied in the further cartilage tissue clinical translate studies, with additional potential for a broad range of regenerative medicine.