Cartilage-inspired terpolymer hydrogel with excellent mechanical properties and superior lubricating ability.

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common degenerative joint disorder, seriously affects patients' daily activities. Recently, hydrogels, due to their similar structure to articular cartilage, have shown great potential as cartilage-repairing materials. In the present work, we developed a simple process for fabricating terpolymer [P(acrylamide--acrylic acid--2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid)/Fe] hydrogel [P(AAm--AAc--AMPS)/Fe].