Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disease affecting joint functionality and often managed with hyaluronic acid (HA) administration. In this study, a hydrogel based on a lactose-modified chitosan (CTL) reticulated with boric acid has been developed as a viscosupplement for OA treatment. The rheological characterization allowed to identify a composition whose properties were in line with those of commercial products (in the order of tens of Pascal). The selected CTL-hydrogel showed biocompatibility and antioxidant activity in vitro, and it did not influence cytokines release by macrophages. Degradation studies carried out over 24 h pointed out its higher resistance to chemical degradation with respect to HA samples.

Overall, this study underlines the advantages of the CTL-hydrogel to address the treatment of OA and shed light on an innovative application of CTL polymer, which is one of the main component of the proposed hydrogel system and not used in mixture with other molecules.

骨关节炎（OA）是一种影响关节功能的慢性疾病，通常通过透明质酸（HA）进行治疗。在这项研究中，已经开发出了一种基于乳糖修饰的壳聚糖（CTL）的网状水凝胶，该乳糖与硼酸网状化，可作为OA治疗的粘稠剂。流变学特征允许鉴定其性质与商业产品的性质一致（约几十帕斯卡）的组合物。所选的CTL水凝胶在体外显示出生物相容性和抗氧化活性，并且不影响巨噬细胞释放细胞因子。超过24小时进行的降解研究表明，相对于HA样品，其对化学降解的抵抗力更高。

总的来说，这项研究强调了CTL水凝胶在解决OA方面的优势，并为CTL聚合物的创新应用提供了亮点，CTL聚合物是所提出的水凝胶系统的主要成分之一，不与其他分子混合使用。