The objective of this thesis is to investigate the role of cartilage interstitial fluid pressurization and articular surface topography in the cartilage boundary friction model of Ateshian and coworkers (1994, 1998). The model predicates the effective friction coefficient to be a function of the fluid load support, solid-tosolid area fraction and the equilibrium friction coefficient. The first studies of this thesis investigate the fluid load support mechanism of the tissue. A new experimental technique is developed to directly measure this parameter in confined compression. To investigate the fluid load support in other configurations, the analysis is extended to unconfmed compression and a theoretical model which incorporates the tension compression nonlinearity of the tissue is developed. Next, this thesis examines the role of the effective solid-to-solid area fraction by performing a numerical simulation for a pool of lubricant trapped between an impermeable indenter and a biphasic layer. Finally, several interesting experiments are presented which further investigate the mechanical and frictional response of articular cartilage by testing the anisotropic properties of the tissue, torsional shear response with fluid pressure and unconfmed sliding friction.