Distal Femur Articular Cartilage Surface Topology: Health, Acute Injury, and Repair

Links

URL: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8cg3z1kr

Abstract

The properties of articular cartilage vary across the surface of the femur in the knee joint. These site-specific properties are affected by mechanical loading patterns, which are altered depending on the state of the joint. For instance, loading patterns are altered when the knee suffers an injury, and this may affect the articular surface in a site-specific manner to initiate or advance wear. The overall motivation for this dissertation was to determine the sites susceptible to cartilage degeneration following joint injury, and the site-specificity required for cartilage repair by osteochondral allograft (OCA) transplantation.

To achieve this, a novel robotic mechanical test system (RMTS) and image processing software were developed to investigate the site-specific properties of articular cartilage following anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) in the rabbit, and in OCA repair scenarios in humans and goats. The first objective was to identify sites where structural and functional properties of the cartilage are affected at an early stage in the rabbit ACLT model of joint injury. The RMTS mapped indentation stiffness across the ACLT and the unoperated, contralateral femora, finding the distal, weight-bearing region of the medial femoral condyle (MFC) to be less stiff 28 days following ACLT. The second objective was to investigate sitespecificity in the orthotopic match that is the goal in OCA repair. Performing OCA repairs computationally with images of human condyles, the topographic match of non-orthotopic OCA from the lateral femoral condyle (LFC) to MFC recipient sites may be equivalent to that of orthotopic OCA from the MFC. The third objective was to perform the computational OCA repairs on Boer goat condyles. This identified OCA donor locations for testing orthotopic vs. non-orthotopic repair in vivo in an animal model.

This work has increased understanding of the topological variation of articular cartilage properties on the distal femur in health, injury, and repair. Knowing the sites susceptible to damage following joint injury, and being able to utilize non-orthotopic OCA for the repair of large cartilage defects have significant clinical implications. Additionally, this work presents technical achievements in producing the semiautomated RMTS and software that performs and evaluates OCA repairs.

Cited Works (17)

Year	Entry
1991	Ateshian G, Soslowsky L, Mow V. Quantitation of articular surface topography and cartilage thickness in knee joints using stereophotogrammetry. J Biomech. January 1991;24(8):761-776.
2008	Renstrom P, Ljungqvist A, Arendt E, Beynnon B, Fukubayashi T, Garrett W, Georgoulis T, Hewett TE, Johnson R, Krosshaug T, Mandelbaum B, Micheli L, Myklebust G, Roos E, Roos H, Schamasch P, Shultz S, Werner S, Wojtys E, Engebretsen L. Non-contact ACL injuries in female athletes: an International Olympic Committee current concepts statement. Br J Sports Med. June 2008;42(6):394-412.
1989	Mow VC, Gibbs MC, Lai WM, Zhu WB, Athanasiou KA. Biphasic indentation of articular cartilage, II: a numerical algorithm and an experimental study. J Biomech. 1989;22:853-861.
1991	Athanasiou KA, Rosenwasser MP, Buckwalter JA, Malinin TI, Mow VC. Interspecies comparisons of in situ intrinsic mechanical properties of distal femoral cartilage. J Orthop Res. May 1991;9(3):330-340.
2011	Whittaker EC, Aubin PM, Ledoux WR. Foot bone kinematics as measured in a cadaveric robotic gait simulator. Gait Post. April 2011;33(4):645-650.
1987	Mak AF, Lai WM, Mow VC. Biphasic indentation of articular cartilage, I: theoretical analysis. J Biomech. 1987;20(7):703-714.
2007	Lohmander LS, Englund PM, Dahl LL, Roos EM. The long-term consequence of anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus injuries: osteoarthritis. Am J Sports Med. October 2007;35(10):1756-1769.
1988	Eggli PS, Hunzinker EB, Schenk RK. Quantitation of structural features characterizing weight- and less-weight-bearing regions in articular cartilage: a stereological analysis of medical femoral condyles in young adult rabbits. Anat Rec. November 1988;222(3):217-227.
1996	Rudy TW, Livesay GA, Woo SL-Y, Fu FH. A combined robotic/universal force sensor approach to determine in situ forces of knee ligaments. J Biomech. October 1996;29(10):1357-1360.
1999	Shepherd DET, Seedhom BB. Thickness of human articular cartilage in joints of the lower limb. Ann Rheum Dis. January 1999;58(1):27-34.
1971	Kempson GE, Freeman MAR, Swanson SAV. The determination of a creep modulus for articular cartilage from indentation tests on the human femoral head. J Biomech. July 1971;4(4):239-250.
2007	Schmidt TA, Sah RL. Effect of synovial fluid on boundary lubrication of articular cartilage. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. January 2007;15(1):35-47.
1995	Roos H, Adalberth T, Dahlberg L, Lohmander LS. Osteoarthritis of the knee after injury to the anterior cruciate ligament or meniscus: the influence of time and age. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. December 1995;3(3):261-267.
1997	Buckwalter JA, Mankin HJ. Articular cartilage, I: tissue design and chondrocyte-matrix interactions. J Bone Joint Surg. April 1997;79A(4):600-611.
1972	Hayes WC, Keer LM, Herrmann G, Mockros LF. A mathematical analysis for indentation tests of articular cartilage. J Biomech. September 1972;5(5):541-551.
1970	Kempson GE, Muir H, Swanson SAV, Freeman MAR. Correlations between stiffness and the chemical constituents of cartilage on the human femoral head. Biochim Biophys Acta. July 21, 1970;215(1):70-77.
2000	Loening AM, James IE, Levenston ME, Badger AM, Frank EH, Kurz B, Nuttall ME, Hung H-H, Blake SM, Grodzinsky AJ, Lark MW. Injurious mechanical compression of bovine articular cartilage induces chondrocyte apoptosis. Arch Biochem Biophys. September 15, 2000;381(2):205-212.