PLA-lignin nanofibers as antioxidant biomaterials for cartilage regeneration and osteoarthritis treatment

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis (OA) is common musculoskeletal disorders associated with overgeneration of free radicals, and it causes joint pain, inflammation, and cartilage degradation. Lignin as a natural antioxidant biopolymer has shown its great potential for biomedical applications. In this work, we developed a series of lignin-based nanofibers as antioxidative scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering. RESULTS: The nanofibers were engineered by grafting poly(lactic acid) (PLA) into lignin via ring-opening polymerization and followed by electrospinning. Varying the lignin content in the system was able to adjust the physiochemical properties of the resulting nanofibers, including fiber diameters, mechanical and viscoelastic properties, and antioxidant activity. In vitro study demonstrated that the PLA-lignin nanofibers could protect bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (BMSCs) from oxidative stress and promote the chondrogenic differentiation. Moreover, the animal study showed that the lignin nanofibers could promote cartilage regeneration and repair cartilage defects within 6 weeks of implantation. CONCLUSION: Our study indicated that lignin-based nanofibers could serve as an antioxidant tissue engineering scaffold and facilitate the cartilage regrowth for OA treatment. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-022-01534-2.