Biosynthetic response and mechanical properties of articular cartilage after injurious compression

Kurz B, Jin M, Patwari P, et al. · Journal of Orthopaedic Research

High strain-rate overload significantly suppressed proteoglycan and protein synthesis, degraded mechanical properties, and increased cell death — mechanistic evidence that supraphysiologic loading rate, not just magnitude, injures cartilage.

Population

Bovine cartilage explants subjected to controlled injurious compression

Intervention

Overload compression at high strain rates

Comparator

Free-swelling and low-strain-rate loaded explants

Limitations

Bovine explants; loading regimes only approximate in-vivo joint mechanics; no human outcome data.