Background Cartilage is a hydrated soft tissue whose solid matrix consists of negatively charged proteoglycans enmeshed within a fibrillar collagen network. Though many aspects of cartilage mechanics are well understood today, most notably in the context of porous media mechanics, there remain a number of responses observed experimentally whose prediction from theory has been challenging. Method of approach In this study the solid matrix of cartilage is modeled with a continuous fiber angular distribution, where fibers can only sustain tension, swelled by the osmotic pressure of a proteoglycan ground matrix. Results It is shown that this representation of cartilage can predict a number of observed phenomena in relation to the tissue’s equilibrium response to mechanical and osmotic loading, when flow-dependent and flow-independent viscoelastic effects have subsided. In particular, this model can predict the transition of Poisson’s ratio from very low values in compression (~0.02) to very high values in tension (~2.0). Most of these phenomena cannot be explained when using only three orthogonal fiber bundles to describe the tissue matrix, a common modeling assumption used to date. Conclusions The main picture emerging from this analysis is that the anisotropy of the fibrillar matrix of articular cartilage is intimately dependent on the mechanism of tensed fiber recruitment, in the manner suggested by our recent theoretical study (G. A. Ateshian. J Biomech Eng, 129(2):240-9, 2007).

This study reports experimental measurements of solute diffusivity and partition coefficient for various solute concentrations and gel porosities, and proposes novel constitutive relations to describe these observed values. The longer-term aim is to explore the theoretical ramifications of accommodating variations in diffusivity and partition coefficient with solute concentration and tissue porosity, and investigate whether they might suggest novel mechanisms not previously recognized in the field of solute transport in deformable porous media. The study implements a model transport system of agarose hydrogels to investigate the effect of solute concentration and hydrogel porosity on the transport of dextran polysaccharides. The proposed phenomenological constitutive relations are shown to provide better fits of experimental results than prior models proposed in the literature based on the microstructure of the gel. While these constitutive models were developed for the transport of dextran in agarose hydrogels, it is expected that they may also be applied to the transport of similar molecular weight solutes in other porous media. This quantification can assist in the application of biophysical models that describe biological transport in deformable tissues, as well as the cell cytoplasm.

The objective of this study was to provide a detailed experimental assessment of the two-dimensional cartilage strain distribution on the cross-section of the human patellofemoral joint (PFJ) subjected to physiological load magnitudes and rates. The medial side of six human PFJs sectioned along their mid-sagittal plane was loaded up to the equivalent of two body weights on a whole joint, and strain measurements obtained from digital image correlation are reported at 0.5s. Normal strains tangential to the articular surface and shear strains in the plane of the cross-section showed consistent patterns among all specimens, whereas normal strains perpendicular to the articular surface exhibited some variability that may be attributed to subject-specific variations in material properties through the depth of the articular layers. Elevated tensile and compressive principal normal strains were observed near the articular surface, around the center of the contact region, with additional locations of elevated compressive strains occurring at the bone-cartilage interface. Under an average contact stress of ∼3.3 MPa, the peak compressive principal normal strains for the patella and femur averaged -0.158 ± 0.072 and -0.118 ± 0.051 respectively, magnitudes that are significantly greater than the relative changes in cartilage thickness, -0.090 ± 0.030 and -0.072 ± 0.038 (p < 0.005). These experimental results provide a detailed description of the manner by which human PFJ articular layers deform in situ under physiological load conditions.

Background-Cartilage is a hydrated soft tissue whose solid matrix consists of negatively charged proteoglycans enmeshed within a fibrillar collagen network. Though many aspects of cartilage mechanics are well understood today, most notably in the context of porous media mechanics, there remain a number of responses observed experimentally whose prediction from theory has been challenging.Method of approach-In this study the solid matrix of cartilage is modeled with a continuous fiber angular distribution, where fibers can only sustain tension, swelled by the osmotic pressure of a proteoglycan ground matrix.Results-It is shown that this representation of cartilage can predict a number of observed phenomena in relation to the tissue's equilibrium response to mechanical and osmotic loading, when flow-dependent and flow-independent viscoelastic effects have subsided. In particular, this model can predict the transition of Poisson's ratio from very low values in compression (~0.02) to very high values in tension (~2.0). Most of these phenomena cannot be explained when using only three orthogonal fiber bundles to describe the tissue matrix, a common modeling assumption used to date. Conclusions-The main picture emerging from this analysis is that the anisotropy of the fibrillar matrix of articular cartilage is intimately dependent on the mechanism of tensed fiber recruitment, in the manner suggested by our recent theoretical study (G. A. Ateshian. J Biomech Eng, 129(2): 240-9, 2007).

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