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

doi:10.1021/acsnano.4c18811

Biodegradable Piezo-triboelectric Charge Nanogenerator Patch for Cartilage Regeneration

ACS Nano. 2025 Jul 1. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.4c18811. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Kaihang Zhang^{1

2}, Yifan Wu³, Jie Li^{1

2}, Xinyu Cai^{1

2}, Chi Zhang^{1

2}, Kaicheng Xu³, Jiaqi Lu^{1

2}, Jianhui Wu^{1

2}, Liangquan Xu^{1

2}, Dinku Hazarika^{1

2}, Rui Wan^{1

2}, Chuanrui Chen^{1

2}, Zhen Cao^{1

2}, Xiaozhi Wang^{1

2}, Hao Jin^{1

2}, Zongyin Yang^{1

2}, Shurong Dong^{1

2}, Yan Yan Shery Huang⁴, Gang Feng³, Jikui Luo^{1

2}, Zhong Lin Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
² International Campus, Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China.
³ Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, China.
⁴ Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, U.K.
⁵ Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101400, China.

PMID: 40591838
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c18811

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, Ca²⁺ influx, and chondrogenic gene expression. In an osteoarthritis rat model, PTEG implantation was shown to reduce osteophyte formation and enhance cartilage regeneration significantly.

Keywords: biodegradable piezo-triboelectric nanogenerator; cartilage regeneration; medical patch; osteoarthritis treatment; scalable implant device.