direct visualisation of the depth-dependent mechanical properties of full-thickness articular cartilage的直接可视化与深度有关的全层关节软骨的力学性能.pdfVIP

Open Journal of Orthopedics, 2012, 2, 34-39 /10.4236/ojo.2012.22007 Published Online June 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ojo) Direct Visualisation of the Depth-Dependent Mechanical * Properties of Full-Thickness Articular Cartilage Matthew Szarko1#, Yang Xia2 1Division of Biomedical Sciences, St George’s University of London, London, UK; 2Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, USA. Email: #mszarko@sgul.ac.uk, xia@ Received December 19th, 2011; revised March 8th, 2012; accepted March 18th, 2012 ABSTRACT Objective: The structural anisotropy of articular cartilage controls its deformation response. As proteoglycans and col- lagen vary with depth, simple uniaxial compression results in inhomogeneous deformation with distinct depth-depend- ent mechanical properties. Investigations into depth-dependent mechanical properties of articular cartilage have previ- ously required tissue modification after specimen isolation. Such modifications include histological processes, freezing, subchondral bone removal, and fluorescent staining that may alter the tissue, limiting in vivo applicability. Design: Us- ing a custom tissue-sectioning device, 0.1 mm thick unfixed, unstained, osetochondral samples were obtained. A cus- tomized apparatus loaded samples to 12.5%, 24%, and 29% compression in under a microscope with 10× magnification. Equilibrium load was measured after stress relaxation. Intra-tissue displacement was measured by tracing groups of cells between the different compression levels using a digital imaging program. Cell distance from the subchondral bone was measured to identify intra-tissue displacement and calculate strain. Results: The results reveal that stress lev- els and intra-tissue displacement increased with greater tissue compression