Journal
COMPUTER METHODS IN BIOMECHANICS AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Volume 14, Issue 7, Pages 657-664Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/10255842.2010.493512
Keywords
articular cartilage; microenvironment; chondron; chondrocyte; pericellular matrix; pericellular capsule
Funding
- Canada Research Chair Programme
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- Alberta Ingenuity Fund (Canada)
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Experimental studies suggest that the magnitude of chondrocyte deformation is much smaller than expected based on the material properties of extracellular matrix (ECM) and cells, and that this result could be explained by a structural unit, the chondron, that is thought to protect chondrocytes from large deformations in situ. We extended an existing numerical model of chondrocyte, ECM and pericellular matrix (PCM) to include depth-dependent structural information. Our results suggest that superficial zone chondrocytes, which lack a pericellular capsule (PC), are relatively stiff, and therefore are protected from excessive deformations, whereas middle and deep zone chondrocytes are softer but are protected by the PC that limits cell deformations in these regions. We conclude that cell deformations sensitively depend on the immediate structural environment of the PCM in a depth-dependent manner, and that the functional stiffness of chondrocytes in situ is much larger than experiments on isolated cells would suggest.
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