Tissue engineering has made promising progresses in the aspect of cartilage repair in nearly two decades. The use of hydrogel-based scaffolds not only promotes the extracellular environment for 3D cell culture, but also provides suitable mechanical properties. Among all kinds of hydrogels, gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels ( GelMA ) have gained great interest due to their appropriate biological properties and tunable physicochemical characteristics. This photocrosslinkable hydrogels can crosslink to form networks with tunable mechanical properties when exposed to UV light. GelMA highly mimics extracellular matrix ( ECM ) so that they can facilitate cell-attaching and retain metalloproteinase responsive peptide motifs. These characteristics allow chondrocytes to proliferate and spread in hydrogels, and contribute to self-degradation. Hybrid hydrogels can be fabricated by mixing GelMA with other polymers combineing biocompatibility and mechanical strength. GelMA plays a critical pioneering role in the field of a

作者：张传昕；李梁；吴海山

来源：中国骨与关节杂志 2017 年 6卷 8期