Radiography of rabbit articular cartilage with diffraction-enhanced imaging.
Articular cartilage of synovial joints is not visible with conventional X-ray imaging. Hence, the gradual degeneration and destruction of articular cartilage, which is characteristic of degenerative joint diseases, is only detected at a late stage when the cartilage is lost and the joint space that it once occupied narrows. The development of an X-ray imaging technique that could detect both the degenerative cartilage and bone features of joint diseases is of special interest. Here we show, for the first time, that a high-contrast imaging technique, diffraction-enhanced X-ray imaging (DEI), allows the visualization of articular cartilage of both disarticulated and articulated rabbit knee joints. Furthermore, a single cartilage lesion can be visualized within an intact joint. The results suggest that DEI has the potential to be of use in the study of cartilage degeneration.
Muehleman
Carol
C
Department of Anatomy, Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. Carol_Muehleman@rush.edu
Chapman
L Dean
LD
Kuettner
Klaus E
KE
Rieff
Joel
J
Mollenhauer
Juergen A
JA
Massuda
Koichi
K
Zhong
Zhong
Z
D000818:Animals; D001175:Arthrography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D011817:Rabbits; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*