Arbabi Vahid, Pouran Behdad, Zadpoor Amir A, Weinans Harrie
Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime, and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft); Department of Orthopedics, UMC Utrecht;
Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime, and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).
J Vis Exp. 2017 Apr 23(122):54984. doi: 10.3791/54984.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating disease that is associated with degeneration of articular cartilage and subchondral bone. Degeneration of articular cartilage impairs its load-bearing function substantially as it experiences tremendous chemical degradation, i.e. proteoglycan loss and collagen fibril disruption. One promising way to investigate chemical damage mechanisms during OA is to expose the cartilage specimens to an external solute and monitor the diffusion of the molecules. The degree of cartilage damage (i.e. concentration and configuration of essential macromolecules) is associated with collisional energy loss of external solutes while moving across articular cartilage creates different diffusion characteristics compared to healthy cartilage. In this study, we introduce a protocol, which consists of several steps and is based on previously developed experimental micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) and finite element modeling. The transport of charged and uncharged iodinated molecules is first recorded using micro-CT, which is followed by applying biphasic-solute and multiphasic finite element models to obtain diffusion coefficients and fixed charge densities across cartilage zones.
骨关节炎（OA）是一种使人衰弱的疾病，与关节软骨和软骨下骨的退变有关。关节软骨退变会极大地损害其承重功能，因为它会经历巨大的化学降解，即蛋白聚糖流失和胶原纤维破坏。研究骨关节炎期间化学损伤机制的一种有前景的方法是将软骨标本暴露于外部溶质并监测分子的扩散。软骨损伤程度（即必需大分子的浓度和构型）与外部溶质在穿过关节软骨时的碰撞能量损失相关，与健康软骨相比，这会产生不同的扩散特征。在本研究中，我们介绍了一种方案，该方案由几个步骤组成，基于先前开发的实验性微型计算机断层扫描（micro-CT）和有限元建模。首先使用micro-CT记录带电和不带电的碘化分子的传输，然后应用双相溶质和多相有限元模型来获得整个软骨区域的扩散系数和固定电荷密度。
