Abstract: Background　Articular cartilage exhibits limited self-repair capability after injury and is prone to progressing toward osteoarthritis. Conventional repair approaches face inherent limitations, while tissue engineering offers a novel strategy for cartilage regeneration.Objective　This study aims to construct and evaluate a curcumin loaded methacrylated chondroitin sulfate/ decellularized Wharton's jelly (CSMA/Wharton/Curcumin, CWC)composite hydrogel, and systematically investigate its physicochemical properties, biocompatibility,immunomodulatory capacity, and potential to promote chondrogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)under inflammatory conditions. Methods　The CWC composite hydrogel was fabricated via 405 nm ultraviolet light-induced crosslinking. Its morphology and physicochemical properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and swelling experiments. The biocompatibility and proliferative effects of hydrogel extracts from the three groups—CSMA, CW (CSMA/Wharton's jelly), and CWC—on rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were evaluated using the CCK-8 assay,live/dead staining, and phalloidin staining. The immunomodulatory function of the materials was assessed by detecting the expression of M1/M2 macrophage phenotype-related markers (e.g., CD86,CD206) through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunofluorescence. Under an inflammatory microenvironment induced by interleukin 1β (IL1β), the chondrogenic differentiation capacity of BMSCs was evaluated by measuring the expression levels of key chondrogenic genes, including Sox9,Col2a1,Acan,and Col1, via qRT-PCR.Results　The CWC hydrogel exhibited a stable,homogeneous,and interconnected three-dimensional porous structure.Curcumin was successfully loaded,and the incorporation of Wharton's jelly resulted in a more compact network architecture. Biological evaluation indicated that all three groups of materials showed no obvious cytotoxicity and could support cell proliferation and spreading.Among them, the curcumin-loaded CWC group demonstrated the most significant pro‑proliferative effect (P＜0.05). In terms of immunomodulation,the CWC hydrogel significantly downregulated the mRNA expression of M1 macrophage markers (IL‑1β,CD86) and upregulated that of M2 markers (Arg1,CD206), effectively polarizing macrophages toward an anti‑inflammatory phenotype. Under inflammatory conditions, the CWC hydrogel markedly reversed the IL‑1β‑induced suppression of chondrogenic differentiation, enhanced the expression of cartilage‑specific genes (Sox9,Col2,Acan),and concurrently suppressed Col1 expression.Its protective and pro‑chondrogenic effects were superior to those of the CSMA and CW groups. Conclusion　In this study, a curcumin-loaded, photocrosslinked CSMA/Wharton's jelly composite hydrogel was successfully fabricated. The material demonstrated favorable biocompatibility and significant immunomodulatory capacity, and it effectively protected and promoted the chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs under inflammatory conditions.The incorporation of curcumin endowed the scaffold with distinct anti-inflammatory and pro‑chondrogenic activities. Combined with the biomimetic microenvironment provided by Wharton's jelly, the system achieved a synergistic"anti‑inflammatory and pro‑regenerative"effect,offering a novel functionalized scaffold strategy for cartilage repair.