The team led by Professor Fan Zengjie from School of Stomatology, Lanzhou University and the team led by Professor Sun Luyi from Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, designed and successfully produced a three-layer gradient scaffold through physical cross-linking, photo cross-linking and chemical cross-linking. This study provides a series of strategies for the preparation of polymer based porous scaffolds, and offers a new type of natural biodegradable scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration.
Recently, the research achievement was published on Advanced Functional Materials with the title "3D Printing Hydrogel Scaffolds with Nano-hydroxyapatite Gradient to Effectively Repair Osteochondral Defects in Rats". The first completion unit of the paper is Lanzhou University. Zhang Hui, a postgraduate student from School of Stomatology of LZU, is the first author of the paper, and Professor Fan is the first corresponding author.
