Osmotic loading to determine the intrinsic material properties of guinea pig knee cartilage

Flahiff, Charlene M.; Narmoneva, Daria A.; Huebner, Janet L.; Kraus, Virginia B.; Guilak, Farshid; Setton, Lori A.

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Volume 35, Issue 9 , Pages 1285-1290, September 2002

Osmotic loading to determine the intrinsic material properties of guinea pig knee cartilage

Charlene M. Flahiff
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Box 90281, 136 Hudson Hall, Durham, NC 22708-0281, USA
Daria A. Narmoneva
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, USA
Janet L. Huebner
- Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, & Clinical Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
Virginia B. Kraus
- Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, & Clinical Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
Farshid Guilak
- Department of Surgery, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
Lori A. Setton
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Box 90281, 136 Hudson Hall, Durham, NC 22708-0281, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-919-660-5131; fax: +1-919-660-5362

Accepted 22 February 2002.

Abstract

Few methods exist to study cartilage mechanics in small animal joints due to the difficulties associated with handling small tissue samples. In this study, we apply an osmotic loading method to quantify the intrinsic material properties of articular cartilage in small animal joints. Cartilage samples were studied from the femoral condyle and tibial plateau of two-month old guinea pigs. Swelling strains were measured using confocal fluorescence scanning microscopy in samples subjected to osmotic loading. A histochemical staining method was developed and calibrated for quantification of negative fixed charge density in guinea pig cartilage. Site-matched swelling strain data and fixed charge density values were then used with a triphasic theoretical model for cartilage swelling to determine the uniaxial modulus of the cartilage solid matrix. Moduli obtained in this study (7.2MPa femoral condyle; 10.8MPa, tibial plateau) compare well with previously reported values for the tensile moduli of human and other animal cartilages determined from uniaxial tension experiments. This study provides the first available data for material properties and fixed charge density in cartilage from the guinea pig knee and suggests a promising method for tracking changes in cartilage mechanics in small animal models of degeneration.