Multifunctional inverse opal microcarriers‐based cytokines delivery system with stem cell homing capability for osteoarthritis treatment

Abstract Osteoarthritis has been regarded as a complex and serious degenerative disease. Attempts in this area are focused on improving the curative effect of stem cell‐based therapies. In this work, we present a novel inverse opal microcarriers‐based cytokines delivery system to induce autologous stem cell homing for osteoarthritis treatment. Considering their important role in stem cell recruitment and chondrogenic differentiation respectively, platelet‐derived growth factor BB (PDGF‐BB) and transforming growth factor β3 (TGF‐β3) are loaded into inverse opal microcarriers as model cytokines. Since cytokine release induces the corresponding variations in characteristic reflection spectra and structural colors, the inverse opal microcarriers possess the optical self‐reporting capacity to monitor the release process. In vitro cell experiments reveal that inverse opal microcarriers could successfully recruit the gathering of mesenchymal stem cells through the release of loaded cytokines. Based on these features, we have demonstrated the enhanced therapeutic effect of PDGF‐BB and TGF‐β3 loaded inverse opal microcarriers in the treatment of rat osteoarthritis models. These results indicate that the multifunctional inverse opal microcarriers‐based cytokines delivery system would find broad prospects in osteoarthritis treatment and other biomedical fields.