A method for cartilage tissue engineering including fabricating a nanocomposite, injecting the nanocomposite into a defect site of cartilage, and forming a hydrogel in the defect site of the cartilage using a sol-gel transition responsive to increasing temperature of the nanocomposite from room temperature to 37° C. Fabricating a nanocomposite includes forming an activated copolymer by functionalizing a copolymer, forming a conjugated copolymer by grafting the activated copolymer to a polysaccharide, forming a protein-conjugated copolymer by crosslinking a protein with the conjugated copolymer, forming the nanocomposite by adding a plurality of nanoparticles to the protein-conjugated copolymer.
