The anisotropic continuum stored energy density (ACSED) functional is applied for accurate constitutive modeling of biological tissues and finite element implementation without the isochoric—volumetric split, anisotropic—isotropic or invariant split. Related stress elasticity tensors in reference current configurations are worked out. A new kinematic model derived based on tangent Poisson’s rat...

High-buoyant-density proteoglycan aggregates could not be prepared from extracts of adult human cartilage by associative CsCl-density-gradient centrifugation with a starting density of 1.68 g/ml, even though proteoglycan subunits, hyaluronic acid and link proteins were all present. In contrast, aggregates could be prepared when extracts of neonatal human cartilage or bovine nasal cartilage were...

INTRODUCTION Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial disease that is characterized primarily by the progressive loss of articular cartilage. The progression of the disease is marked by the loss of collagen and proteoglycan (PG) content of the cartilage. Current radiological imaging techniques are limited to observing morphological changes that occur at relatively late stages of the disease [1]....

BACKGROUND Tenascin-C (TN-C) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein that is involved in tissue injury and repair processes. We analyzed TN-C expression in normal and osteoarthritic (OA) human cartilage, and evaluated its capacity to induce inflammatory and catabolic mediators in chondrocytes in vitro. The effect of TN-C on proteoglycan loss from articular cartilage in culture was also assessed...

Articular cartilage destruction and loss of function in arthritic diseases involves proteolytic degradation of the connective tissue matrix. We have investigated the degradation of cartilage collagen by developing immunochemical methods that permit the identification and analysis of type II collagen degradation in situ. Previously, a technique to specifically identify type II collagen degradati...

INTRODUCTION: Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) stimulation has been observed to enhance bone formation, cartilage regeneration, and softtissue (tendon and muscle) healing. In particular, increased biosynthetic activity and chondrogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells were observed under LIPUS . However, optimal conditions (such as frequency, intensity and treatment durati...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers the opportunity to study biological tissues and processes in a non-disruptive manner. The technique shows promise for the study of the load-bearing performance (consolidation) of articular cartilage and changes in articular cartilage accompanying osteoarthritis. Consolidation of articular cartilage involves the recording of two transient characteristics: ...

The importance of aggrecanase versus matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) enzymic activities in the degradation of aggrecan in normal and osteoarthritic (OA) articular cartilage in vitro was studied in order to further our understanding of the potential role of these two enzyme activities in aggrecan catabolism during the pathogenesis of cartilage degeneration. Porcine and bovine articular cartilage ...

A tetrapolar method to measure electrical conductivity of cartilage and bone, and to estimate the thickness of articular cartilage attached to bone, was developed. We determined the electrical conductivity of humeral head bovine articular cartilage and subchondral bone from a 1- to 2-year-old steer to be 1.14+/-0.11 S/m (mean+/-sd, n =11) and 0.306+/-0.034 S/m, (mean+/-sd, n =3), respectively. ...

the aim of the present study was to develop a tissue-engineering approach through alginate gel molding to mimic cartilage tissue in a three-dimensional culture system. the perfusion biomimetic bioreactor was designed to mimic natural joint. the shear stresses exerting on the bioreactor chamber were calculated by computational fluid dynamic (cfd). several alginate/bovine chondrocyte constructs w...