Coupling plowing of cartilage explants with gene expression in models for synovial joints

• Published in: Journal of biomechanics Vol. 44; no. 13; pp. 2472 - 2476
• Main Authors: Correro-Shahgaldian, Maria Rita, Colombo, Vera, Spencer, Nicholas D, Weber, Franz E, Imfeld, Thomas, Gallo, Luigi M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 02.09.2011; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biomechanical Phenomena; Biomechanics. Biorheology; Cartilage; Cartilage (articular); Cartilage - metabolism; Cartilage homeostasis; Cartilage, Articular - physiology; Cattle; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Friction; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation - physiology; In Vitro Techniques; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous. Osteoarticular involvement in other diseases; Osteoarthritis; Osteoarthritis - etiology; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Plowing; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Studies; Synovial Fluid; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1 - genetics; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics; Up-Regulation - genetics; Weight-Bearing; Cartilage; Cartilage homeostasis; Friction; Osteoarthritis; Plowing; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Explant; Joint; Gene expression; Osteoarticular system; Biomechanics; Articular cartilage; Synovial membrane; Arthropathy; Degenerative disease; Models; Biomedical engineering
• ISSN: 0021-9290; 1873-2380
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2011.06.021

Abstract Articular cartilage undergoes complex loading modalities generally including sliding, rolling and plowing (i.e. the compression by a condyle normally to the tissue surface under simultaneously tangential displacement, thus generating a tractional force due to tissue deformation). Although in in vivo studies it was shown that excessive plowing can lead to osteoarthritis, little quantitative experimental work on this loading modality and its mechanobiological effects is available in the literature. Therefore, a rolling/plowing explant test system has been developed to study the effect on pristine cartilage of plowing at different perpendicular forces. Cartilage strips harvested from bovine nasal septa of 12-months-old calves were subjected for 2 h to a plowing-regime with indenter normal force of 50 or 100 N and a sliding speed of 10 mm s−1 . 50 N produced a tractional force of 1.2±0.3 N, whereas 100 N generated a tractional force of 8.0±1.4 N. Furthermore, quantitative-real-time polymerase chain reaction experiments showed that TIMP-1 was 2.5x up-regulated after 50 N plowing and 2x after 100 N plowing, indicating an ongoing remodeling process. The expression of collagen type-I was not affected after 50 N plowing but it was up-regulated (6.6x) after 100 N plowing, suggesting a possible progression to an injury stage of the cartilage, as previously reported in cartilage of osteoarthritic patients. We conclude that plowing as performed by our mimetic system at the chosen experimental parameters induces changes in gene expression depending on the tractional force, which, in turn, relates to the applied normal force.