PURPOSE Some controversy exists regarding the effects of radiofrequency (RF) probes on articular cartilage. To further elucidate these effects, we examined the chondrocyte viability and metabolic activity after treatment of fresh bovine articular cartilage with bipolar RF probes. TYPE OF STUDY In vitro assessment. METHODS Three fresh bovine knees served as a baseline control for chondrocyte...

Non-invasive determination of structural changes in articular cartilage immediately after impact and rehydration provides insight into the response recovery soft tissue, as well a potential methodology for clinicians to quantify early degenerative changes. In this study, we use polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) examine subtle alterations properties healthy early-stage...

BACKGROUND Total meniscectomy has been shown to cause early-onset arthritis in the underlying cartilage and bone in the knee joint, demonstrating that the meniscus plays an important protective role in the load carrying capacity. Relationships between friction and wear in synovial joints are complex due to the biphasic nature of articular cartilage and the time dependency of tribological respon...

Articular cartilage is the soft tissue that covers contacting surfaces of bones in synovial joints. Cartilage is composed of chondrocytes and an extracellular matrix containing numerous biopolymers, cations and water. Healthy cartilage functions biomechanically to provide smooth and stable joint movement. Degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis involve cartilage deterioration, result...

BACKGROUND Articular cartilage homoeostasis is critical for joint function. The steady state homoeostasis of articular cartilage is a balance between anabolic morphogens such as cartilage derived morphogenetic proteins (CDMPs) and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) of the BMP family and catabolic cytokines such as interleukin (IL)1, IL17, and tumour necrosis factor alpha. Although bone and arti...

Cartilage glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) were measured by a spectrophotometric assay in synovial fluid obtained from 30 normal bovine hock joints and 15 osteoarthritic human knee joints. Results were compared with those obtained by radioimmunoassay (RIA). The spectrophotometric method (dimethylmethylene blue (DMB) assay) was found to be simple, safe, and sufficiently reproducible to be of potential ...

Two-dimensional depth-resolved Jones-matrix images of scattering biological tissues were measured with novel double-source double-detector polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (OCT). The Jones matrix can be determined in a single scan with this OCT system. The experimental results show that this system can be effectively applied to the measurement of soft tissues, which are less ...

We studied the tissue growth dynamics of tissue-engineered cartilage at an early growth stage after cell seeding for four weeks using sodium triple-quantum coherence NMR spectroscopy. The following tissue-engineering constructs were studied: 1) bovine chondrocytes cultured in alginate beads; 2) bovine chondrocytes cultured as pellets (scaffold-free chondrocyte pellets); and 3) human marrow stro...

STUDY DESIGN Basic science, biologic study. OBJECTIVE To determine the potential benefits of using resveratrol (RSV) for intervertebral disc (IVD) matrix repair and regeneration. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The phytoestrogen RSV is a natural compound found in various plants including grapes and red wines. RSV has been reported to provide a protective effect on articular cartilage in rabbit m...

BACKGROUND Autologous and allogeneic osteochondral grafts have been used to repair damaged or diseased cartilage. There are drawbacks to both of these methods, however. Another possible source for osteochondral grafting is photooxidized xenograft scaffolds. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the adaptive immune response to unprocessed and photooxidized xenogeneic osteochondral grafts in ...