Consolidation responses of delipidized articular cartilage.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the role of articular cartilage lipids in its load-bearing function.


METHODS
Normal and delipidised, bovine articular cartilage specimens were statically loaded and both the hydrostatic excess pore pressure and creep strain were measured. From this the compression stiffness of the skeletal structures of both types of matrices was determined.


BACKGROUND
It has been hypothesized that surfactant injection could relief osteoarthritis, but there is no study in the literature relating to the influence of lipids, the main ingredients of such products, on cartilage load-carriage.


METHODS
Articular cartilage specimens were obtained from the patellar grooves of 2-3 year old bovine animals. When required specimen delipidization was carried out using chloroform/methanol rinsing. Both normal and delipidised samples were loaded in the consolidometer and the hydrostatic excess pore pressure and strain were measured.


RESULTS
The transient patterns of the hydrostatic excess pore pressure were similar for both types of tissue, with a relatively insignificant increase of 2% in the maximum hydrostatic excess pore pressure of the delipidized samples relative to the normal intact specimens. The maximum creep strain of the delipidised specimens decreased by 10% on average relative to their normal intact counterparts, thereby indicating that delipidization causes stiffening of the cartilage matrix.


CONCLUSIONS
The delipidized fluid-saturated articular cartilage is stiffer than its intact counterpart with consequence for cartilage compliance during function.


CONCLUSIONS
Because osteoarthritis can be accompanied by lipid loss in cartilage, this study contributes to the further understanding of the disease with potential benefit for treatment.
Oloyede
A
A
School of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Medical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, P.O. Box 2434, 2 George Street, Brisbane Q 4001, Australia. k.oloyede@qut.edu.au
Gudimetla
P
P
Crawford
R
R
Hills
B A
BA
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D002417:Cattle; D004548:Elasticity; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008055:Lipids / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology*
D008055:Lipids