Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To review the research progress and application prospects of Kartogenin (KGN) in cartilage repair and tissue engineering. METHODS: Through a literature review, the mechanisms of KGN in cartilage repair, biomaterial composite strategies, and the resulting repair effectivenes were sorted out. RESULTS: KGN regulates multiple signaling pathways to induce mesenchymal stem cells differentiation into chondrocytes, maintain chondrocyte phenotypes, inhibit chondrocyte senescence, and promote the secretion of extracellular matrix. KGN also forms high-efficiency scaffolds with various materials, suitable for tissue engineering scaffolds of different anatomical sites and defect types, and exhibits significant cartilage regenerative effectiveness in vitro and small animal models. CONCLUSION: Overall, KGN shows great application potential in cartilage tissue engineering. However, clinical translation still faces many challenges, which represents a key direction for future research.