Electrospinning is a common and effective technology used for the fabrication of biomimetic nanofibers targeting tissue regeneration applications. As for cartilage regeneration, nanofibers containing natural components derived from cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) are preferred. However, it is not easy an task to electrospin glycosaminoglycan (GAG) like hyaluronic acid (HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) by themselves. In this study, HA and/or CS were co-electrospun with poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) or PLLA/gelatin (1:1 in weight ratio) to obtain GAG-containing composite nanofibers. All the prepared composite nanofibers were non-cytotoxic, able to support cell attachment, spread and proliferation. In the differentiation studies, the PLLA/GAG and the PLLA/gelatin/GAG nanofibers demonstrated stronger capacities in promoting the chondrogenic differentiation of both the bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) and chondrocytes than the respective PLLA and PLLA/gelatin nanofibers, even in the proliferation medium without extra inductive factors. The incorporation of gelatin greatly improved the hydrophilicity of the fibrous meshes. At the meantime, the PLLA/gelatin/GAG nanofibers were more efficient than the PLLA/GAG nanofibers in enhancing the chondrogenic differentiation. It was found that the PLLA/gelatin/HA/CS (HA and CS in 1:1 weight ratio) nanofibers demonstrated a stronger synergetic effect on up-regulating chondrogenesis than both the PLLA/gelatin/HA and the PLLA/gelatin/CS nanofibers, when the GAG amounts in all the preparations were controlled as 3 wt.%. Herein, GAG-containing composite nanofibers were successfully electrospun and their potentials for cartilage repair were proved.

静电纺丝是一种常见且有效的技术，用于制造针对组织再生应用的仿生纳米纤维。至于软骨再生，优选含有源自软骨细胞外基质（ECM）的天然成分的纳米纤维。然而，单独对透明质酸 (HA) 和硫酸软骨素 (CS) 等糖胺聚糖 (GAG) 进行静电纺丝并非易事。在这项研究中，HA 和/或 CS 与聚（L-丙交酯）（PLLA）或 PLLA/明胶（重量比为 1:1）共电纺以获得含 GAG 的复合纳米纤维。所有制备的复合纳米纤维均无细胞毒性，能够支持细胞附着、扩散和增殖。在分化研究中，与相应的 PLLA 和 PLLA/明胶纳米纤维相比，PLLA/GAG 和 PLLA/明胶/GAG 纳米纤维在促进骨髓间充质基质细胞 (BMSCs) 和软骨细胞的软骨形成分化方面表现出更强的能力，即使在没有额外的增殖培养基中诱导因素。明胶的加入大大提高了纤维网的亲水性。同时，PLLA/明胶/GAG纳米纤维在促进软骨分化方面比PLLA/GAG纳米纤维更有效。结果表明，与 PLLA/明胶/HA 和 PLLA/明胶/CS 纳米纤维相比，PLLA/明胶/HA/CS（HA 和 CS 的重量比为 1:1）纳米纤维对上调软骨形成具有更强的协同作用, 当所有制剂中的 GAG 量控制为 3 wt.% 时。在此处，