Influence of hyaluronic acid on the time-dependent friction response of articular cartilage under different conditions

Abstract

Therapeutic lubricant injections of hyaluronic acid are a relatively recent treatment for osteoarthritis. Their efficacy, however, in vivo has been subject to much debate. Frictional properties of cartilage-cartilage contacts under both static and dynamic loading conditions have been investigated, using healthy cartilage and cartilage with a physically disrupted surface, with and without the addition of a therapeutic lubricant, hyaluronic acid. Most of the cartilage friction models produced typical time-dependent loading curves, with a rise in static friction with loading time. For the dynamic loading conditions the rise in friction with loading time was dependent on the spatial (and time) variation in the load on the cartilage plate. For sliding distances of 4 mm or greater, when the cartilage plate was unloaded during sliding, the dynamic friction remained low whereas, with shorter sliding distances, the dynamic friction increased with increasing loading time. Static friction was higher than dynamic friction (under the same tribological conditions). The 'damaged' cartilage models produced higher friction than healthy cartilage under equivalent tribological conditions. It was shown that hyaluronic acid was an effective boundary lubricant for articular cartilage under static conditions with both healthy and damaged cartilage surfaces. Hyaluronic acid was less effective under dynamic conditions. However, these dynamic conditions had low friction values with the control lubricant because of the effectiveness of the intrinsic biphasic lubrication of the cartilage. It was only under the tribological conditions in which the cartilage friction was higher and rising with increasing loading time because of depletion of the intrinsic biphasic lubrication, that the role of hyaluronic acid as an effective therapeutic lubricant was demonstrated.

Boundary lubrication of articular cartilage: Role of synovial fluid constituents

“…The significant contribution of HA to the boundary lubrication of apposed articular cartilage surfaces reported here extends and clarifies the findings of previous studies examining the lubricating ability of HA with test protocols and/or configurations, particularly where a boundary mode of lubrication was dominant. Bell et al (16) demonstrated that Arthrease, a fermentation-derived sodium hyaluronate with an MW of 3,000 kd, functioned as an effective lubricant at a cartilage-cartilage interface, but only under static conditions in which the intrinsic biphasic lubrication was depleted. Despite the absolute values of static for both HA and PBS being ϳ3-fold less than those reported here, which may be attributable to differences in the test configuration and protocols, the study by Bell et al and the present study both show that HA contributes to boundary lubrication.…”

“…These studies suggest that HA may function by being retained at or between the articular cartilage surfaces under relative motion during testing. Such adsorbed layers of HA at the articular surface may have facilitated sliding (16), due to their inherent slipperiness and ease of disentangling (48), and therefore reduced friction between asperities in contact.…”

“…These results were consistent with findings of several previous studies and extended them using native cartilage surfaces in similar (8,9) and different (10,11) test configurations, as well as using nonbiologic surfaces (8,12,13). The lubricating ability of HA has been assessed at cartilage-cartilage (14)(15)(16)(17)(18), cartilage-steel (19), and cartilage-glass interfaces (18,20), as well as at a latex-glass interface under boundary lubrication conditions (12,21), with variable conclusions, possibly due to the different test surfaces and configurations and the various resulting operative modes of lubrication. Conversely, PRG4 proteins (22), which are synthesized and secreted by cells lining the synovial cavity (4,5), have consistently demonstrated boundary-lubricating ability at both cartilage-glass (23) and latex-glass interfaces (12,21,24,25).…”

Optoelectronic measurement of interfacial surface

“…Addition of hyaluronic acid to basic solution -PBS (Bell, 2006) or Ringers solution (Forsey, 2006) Svratka, Czech Republic, May 14 -17, 2018 Paper #320, pp. 709-712, doi: 10.21495/91-8-709 important.…”

A pendulum test as a tool to evaluate viscous friction parameters in the equine fetlock joint

“…Three types of boundary lubricant are considered to be involved, individually or in combination, in synovial joints, namely, hyaluronan (HA), lubricin and surface-active phospholipids (SAPLs) (Jay, 1992;Schwarz and Hills, 1998;Elsaid et al, 2005;Bell et al, 2006). Hyaluronan is an un-branched high-molecular-weight (500-3800 kDA, 1-4 mg/mL) anionic disaccharide consisting of alternating units of glucuronic acid b (1-3) and N-acetylglucosamine b (1-4) (Forsey et al, 2006).…”