Time-dependent mechanical behaviors of articular cartilage and chondrocytes under constant total compressive deformation

The excellent performance of very low friction and long durability of natural synovial joints is maintained with synergistic metabolism of articular cartilage and synovial fluid. To study metabolic mechanism including repair process, it is important to know the stress-strain state of the cartilage and extracellular matrix around chondrocytes during cartilage deformation, where chondrocytes seem to experience similar deformation to extracellular matrix. The articular cartilage of high water content has a biphasic viscoelastic property and shows the time-dependent deformation behavior. In this study, the compressive behaviors in articular cartilage containing chondrocytes were observed in the compressive apparatus located in the stage of confocal laser scanning microscope. The time-dependent behavior of articular cartilage was evaluated by the finite element method for biphasic model.