Journal
JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS
Volume 49, Issue 16, Pages 4057-4064Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2016.10.039
Keywords
Articular cartilage; Chondrocyte biomechanical responses; In situ; Deformation; Mature rabbit knee joint; Partial meniscectomy; Osteoarthritis
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Funding
- European Research Council under European Union's Seventh Framework Programme /ERC Grant [281180]
- Academy of Finland [286526]
- AI-HS team grant on Osteoarthritis
- Finnish Cultural Foundation Post-Doctoral Research Grant
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Canada Research Chair Programme
- Killam Foundation
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We determined the biomechanical responses of chondrocytes to indentation at specific locations within the superficial zone of cartilage (i.e. patellar, femoral groove, femoral condylar and tibial plateau sites) taken from female New Zealand white rabbits three days after a partial meniscectomy in the lateral compartment of a knee joint. Confocal laser scanning microscopy combined with a custom indentation system was utilized to image chondrocyte responses at sites taken from ten contralateral and experimental knee joints. Cell volume, height, width and depth changes, global, local axial and transverse strains and Young's moduli were determined. Histological assessment was performed and proteoglycan content from the superficial zone of each site was determined. Relative to contralateral group cells, patellar, femoral groove and lateral femoral condyle cells in the experimental group underwent greater volume decreases (p < 0.05), due to smaller lateral expansions (with greater decreases in cell height only for the lateral femoral condyle cells; p < 0.05) whereas medial femoral and medial tibial plateau cells underwent smaller volume decreases (p < 0.05), due to less deformation in cell height (p < 0.05). Proteoglycan content was reduced in the patellar (p > 0.05), femoral groove, medial femoral condyle and medial tibial plateau experimental sites (p < 0.05). The findings suggest: (i) cell biomechanical responses to cartilage loading in the rabbit knee joint can become altered as early as 3 days after a partial meniscectomy, (ii) are site-specific, and (iii) occur before alterations in tissue mechanics or changes detectable with histology. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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