Osteoarthritis is a disease of the joint that greatly impacts the quality of life of 1 in 6 Canadians but has no known cure. In vitro models of the joint can enable advances in osteoarthritis research, but current systems are insufficient for adequately capturing the complexity of multi-tissue interactions and mechanical stimuli. A microfluidic joint-on-a-chip platform was developed for modelling osteoarthritis that incorporates cartilage, vascularized synovium, and circulating immune cells with dynamic mechanical forces. In particular, a compliant flexure-based mechanism was created to apply cyclic compression to an array of cartilage explants where their metabolic responses were measured under 10% and 30% compressive strain compared to static controls. Additionally, a model of the joint-on-a-chip fluidic network was created to test techniques for gravity perfusion. The compression and flow prototype subsystems establish capabilities required to replicate physiological mechanical stresses in a combined joint-on-a-chip for future evaluation of new treatments.