T-peel test for the analysis of articular cartilage integration.

A central aim of current research is to determine the molecular mechanisms of articular cartilage repair. One major issue of articular cartilage repair is the achievable mechanical strength which has been correlated with the collagen metabolism, deposition and collagen cross-linking. Current in vitro techniques, leading to cartilage integration used a shear test to failure. Another well established in vitro method to investigate articular cartilage integration is the insert-ring push out model which is mainly utilized investigating the integration of tissue engineered cartilage to native cartilage. Finite element modeling illustrates at least for the shear test to failure that the contact area is not homogeneously loaded. For the mechanical analysis of articular cartilage integration in regard to its inhomogeneous integration a higher mechanical resolution method is needed. Furthermore the shear test to failure as well as the ring-insert model lacks a comparison to in situ trauma situation, where ruptured or fractured articular cartilage surfaces are opposed after surgical reduction. Considering all these a T-peel test has been introduced in literature but never been experimentally performed. This project deals with the establishment of a T-peel test as a topographical sensitive tool in mechanical analysis of T-peel data and its potential to investigate articular cartilage in vitro integration in comparison to articular cartilage rupture strength.