The meniscus, located in the knee, is a crescent shaped fibrocartilaginous tissue that distributes tibiofemoral contact pressure. Damage to the meniscus leads to osteoarthritis. Due to its primarily avascular nature and high water content it is a prime candidate for a hydrogel based soft tissue replacement. The difficulties in recreating the properties of the meniscus in a hydrogel platform lie in the highly anisotropic and mechanically robust nature of the meniscus. However, creating a nanostructure in a hydrogel platform that more closely resembles the meniscus may overcome these difficulties in creating a hydrogel based soft tissue replacement.                                                   Through the spatial control of nanostructure in polystyrene (PS) polyethylene oxide (PEO) block copolymer based hydrogels we are able to develop a mechanically robust gel while maintaining high water content (90% by mass). Tuning these highly controlled nano-scale morphologies into a structure that more closely resembles that of the native soft tissue may produce a material that is able to perform the highly specific function of the meniscus.

Engineering effective fibrocartilage replacement technologies: Replicating the mechanics of complex tissues through spatial control of nanostructure

248th National Meeting (2014)

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