Many people, especially old and middle-aged, suffer from pain and disabilities caused by cartilage degradation. There are many surgical methods for cartilage treatment, however, none of them have shown acceptable results in long-term. Tissue engineering would be an acceptable approach for cartilage treatment. This includes cells, a carrier such as a matrix scaffold and signaling molecule. An ideal scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering should meet some requirements includes biocompatibility, biodegradability, and sufficient mechanical characteristic. While there are many suitable scaffolds made by natural and synthesis polymers, alginate- a natural polymer- has received good attention. Alginate offers many advantages for cartilage treatment; it has great potential in having tunable mechanical properties and easy manufacturing process. In the present paper, focusing on alginate as main scaffold constructive component, different studies on alginate based scaffolds in the form of physically, chemically and biologically crosslinked hydrogel, sponge, fiber, micro/nano particles and 3 D printed for articular cartilage tissue engineering are discussed and reviewed.

Extensive usage of long-lasting petroleum based plastics for short-lived application such as packaging has raised concerns regarding their role in environmental pollution. In this research, we have developed active, healable, and safely dissolvable alginate-pectin based biocomposites that have potential applications in food packaging. The morphological study revealed the rough surface of these biocomposite films. Tensile properties indicated that the fabricated samples have mechanical properties in the range of commercially available packaging films while possessing excellent healing efficiency. Biocomposite films exhibited higher hydrophobicity properties compared to neat alginate films. Thermal analysis indicated that crosslinked biocomposite samples possess higher thermal stability in temperatures below 120 °C, while antibacterial analysis against E. coli and S. aureus revealed the antibacterial properties of the prepared samples against different bacteria. The fabricated biodegradable multi-functional biocomposite films possess various imperative properties, making them ideal for utilization as packaging material.