Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that is prone to occur in the middle-aged and elderly groups. It can erode articular cartilage and its affiliated organization, and seriously affect the life of patients. Hydrogels have good biocompatibility and excellent mechanical properties. Functional hydrogels can make up for the shortcomings of short drug action time and the difficulties to cure OA in common therapy approaches. In this article, we review the recent advances of hydrogel as a carrier to treat osteoarthritis from the aspects of drug treatment of osteoarthritis, cartilage defect repair, and synovial fluid repair. The anti-inflammatory and analgesic mechanism of drug release hydrogel, the mechanism of cartilage repair of cartilage defect repair hydrogel and the joint lubrication mechanism of joint lubrication hydrogel were discussed. On these bases, we also summarize the existing problems and propose further development direction of hydrogel in the treatment of OA.

osteoarthritis  /  hydrogel  /  drug treatment  /  cartilage defect repair  /  synovial fluid repair