Heterogeneity of tibial plateau cartilage in response to a physiological compressive strain rate

Knowledge of the extent to which tibial plateau cartilage displays non-uniform mechanical topography under physiologically relevant loading conditions is critical to evaluating the role of biomechanics in knee osteoarthritis. Cartilage explants from 21 tibial plateau sites of eight non-osteoarthritic female cadaveric knees (age: 4154; BMI: 1420) were tested in unconfined compression at 100% strain/s. The elastic tangent modulus at 10% strain (E10%) was calculated for each site and averaged over four geographic regions: not covered by meniscus (I); covered by meniscusanterior (II); covered by meniscusexterior (III); and covered by meniscusposterior (IV). A repeated-measures mixed model analysis of variance was used to test for effects of plateau, region, and their interaction on E10%. Effect sizes were calculated for each region pair. E10% was significantly different (p?