Protective mechanism of articular cartilage to severe loading: Roles of lubricants, cartilage surface layer, extracellular matrix and chondrocyte

The natural synovial joints have excellent tribological performance known as very low friction and very low wear for various daily activities in human life. These functions are likely to be supported by the adaptive multimode lubrication mechanism, in which the various lubrication modes such as elastohydrodynamic lubrication, weeping, boundary and gel film lubrication appear to operate to protect articular cartilage, depending on the severity of the rubbing conditions. In this paper, various protective roles of synovial fluid, cartilage surface layer, extracellular matrix and chondrocyte to severe loading are described. In the first part, the protective mechanism by adsorbed films and underlying gel films was described on the basis of the frictional behaviors of articular cartilage against articular cartilage or glass. It was discussed that the replenishment of gel film removed during severe rubbing is likely to be controlled by supply of proteoglycan from the extracellular matrix, where the chondrocyte plays the main role in the metabolism. In the second part, the time-dependent local deformation of biphasic articular cartilage under constant total compressive strain condition was evaluated in the finite element analyses. The importance of clarification of actual stress-strain in chondrocyte was indicated in relation to the tribological property of articular cartilage.