Biodegradable Piezo-triboelectric Charge Nanogenerator Patch for Cartilage Regeneration
Kaihang Zhang, Yifan Wu, Jie Li, Xinyu Cai, Chi Zhang, Kaicheng Xu, Jiaqi Lu, Jianhui Wu, Liangquan Xu, Dinku Hazarika, Rui Wan, Chuanrui Chen, Zhen Cao, Xiaozhi Wang, Hao Jin, Zongyin Yang, Shurong Dong, Yan Yan Shery Huang, Gang Feng, Jikui Luo, Zhong Lin Wang
Abstract
Cartilage degradation is a hallmark of osteoarthritis. Restoring the natural bioelectric environment of osteoarthritic tissue could offer a promising treatment strategy through physical modulation. We report a microsized, biodegradable implantable patch that utilizes a piezoelectric effect-enhanced triboelectric charge generator (PTEG) to promote cartilage regeneration and osteoarthritis healing. Featuring a triboelectric architecture with macroscopic pyramids and microscopic porosities, the PTEG patch produces a charge density of 242 μC m –2 in vitro and 84 μC m –2 in vivo, approximately 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the state-of-the-art implantable charge generators. Additionally, the PTEG patch demonstrates excellent biocompatibility and tunable degradability. In vitro experiments show that the PTEG significantly promotes bone marrow stem cell migration, Ca 2+ influx, and chondrogenic gene expression. In an osteoarthritis rat model, PTEG implantation was shown to reduce osteophyte formation and enhance cartilage regeneration significantly.