Spontaneous hyaline cartilage regeneration can be induced in an osteochondral defect created in the femoral condyle using a novel double-network hydrogel

Background Functional repair of articular osteochondral defects remains a major challenge not only in the field of knee surgery but also in tissue regeneration medicine. The purpose is to clarify whether the spontaneous hyaline cartilage regeneration can be induced in a large osteochondral defect created in the femoral condyle by means of implanting a novel double-network (DN) gel at the bottom of the defect.