Smart device-mediated joint therapy: From biochemical microenvironment modulation to macro-structural regeneration
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Smart device-mediated joint therapy: From biochemical microenvironment modulation to macro-structural regeneration

Chuan Yang
1,2
,
Yue Hou
2,*
,
Xiaolong Sun
2
,
Junjie Li
3
,
Weikun Chen
4
,
Jiayao Deng
4
,
Jiaxuan Xing
4
,
Zeyuan Zhao
5
,
Xinxin Yan
1,*
*Correspondence to: Yue Hou, School of Integrated Circuits, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei, China. E-mail: yuehou@whu.edu.cn
Xinxin Yan, Department of Orthopedics, Renmin Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, Hubei, China. E-mail: xinxinyan@whu.edu.cn
Smart Mater Devices. 2026;2:202647. 10.70401/smd.2026.0045
Received: August 01, 2026Accepted: September 08, 2026Published: September 08, 2026
This article belongs to the Special lssue  3D Printing of Smart Materials and Structures: From Synthesis to Function
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This manuscript is made available in its unedited form to allow early access to the reported findings. Further editing will be completed before final publication. As such, the content may include errors, and standard legal disclaimers are applicable.

Abstract

Joint disorders, such as osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), significantly impair patients’ quality of life and pose persistent challenges for current clinical management. The articular cavity presents a uniquely challenging therapeutic environment characterized by dense avascular cartilage, stringent synovial barriers, rapid synovial fluid clearance, and complex dynamic mechanical loading. Conventional therapeutic strategies, ranging from systemic pharmacological administration and intra-articular (IA) injections to invasive surgical approaches, are severely constrained by poor local bioavailability, rapid drug clearance, off-target toxicity, and the inherent passivity of static scaffold designs. Consequently, there is an urgent need for intelligent platforms capable of responsively adapting to pathological microenvironments to orchestrate concurrent biochemical regulation and tissue reconstruction. This review summarizes recent advances in smart devices for joint tissue intervention and repair. This review summarizes multi-scale therapeutic strategies specifically for the management of arthritis and related joint disorders, encompassing microneedle (MN)-based systems and 3D-printed structural scaffolds. Finally, the primary translational bottlenecks and future perspectives of these technologies are outlined to guide next-generation joint therapeutics.

Keywords

Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, microneedles, 3D printing, joint repair, transdermal delivery

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© The Author(s) 2026. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Yang C, Hou Y, Sun X, Li J, Chen W, Deng J, et al. Smart device-mediated joint therapy: From biochemical microenvironment modulation to macro-structural regeneration. Smart Mater Devices. 2026;2:202647. https://doi.org/10.70401/smd.2026.0045

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