A Noncontacting Method for Material Property Determination for Articular Cartilage from Osmotic Loading

Biomechanics of articular cartilage and determination of material properties.

Descriptions of the mechanical behaviors of articular cartilage and their correlations with collagen, proteoglycan, water, and ions are summarized, with particular emphasis on understanding the osmotic effect inside the tissue. First, a descriptive explanation is presented of the biphasic theory required to understand how interstitial water contributes toward the viscoelastic behavior of any hy...

Hydrogels as a Replacement Material for Damaged Articular Hyaline Cartilage

Hyaline cartilage is a strong durable material that lubricates joint movement. Due to its avascular structure, cartilage has a poor self-healing ability, thus, a challenge in joint recovery. When severely damaged, cartilage may need to be replaced. However, currently we are unable to replicate the hyaline cartilage, and as such, alternative materials with considerably different properties are u...

A Novel Method for Calculating the Frictional Properties of Articular Cartilage Using a Material Testing Machine

Optimization of Parameters for Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering Withdeformational Loading

INTRODUCTION Using functional tissue engineering approaches, a number of culture systems have been developed that incorporate physiologic mechanical signals to foster tissue development (1,2). Short-term studies demonstrate that dynamic deformational loading increases matrix biosynthesis in chondrocyte-seeded agarose hydrogels (3,4). In long term studies, daily dynamic deformational loading (1H...

The mechanical and material properties of elderly human articular cartilage subject to impact and slow loading.

The mechanical properties of articular cartilage vary enormously with loading rate, and how these properties derive from the composition and structure of the tissue is still unclear. This study investigates the mechanical properties of human articular cartilage at rapid rates of loading, compares these with measurements at slow rates of loading and explores how they relate to the gross composit...