Articular calcified cartilage microarchitecture has a predictive role in abnormal osteochondral strain distributions in murine age-related osteoarthritis
Even though osteoarthritis is considered a disease of the whole joint, integrated analysis of articular calcified cartilage (ACC) behaviour with adjacent tissues remains a persistent limitation. Herein, we performed synchrotron X-ray computed tomography in intact loaded joints and coupled anatomical analysis with digital volume correlation to examine whether microarchitectural ACC features serve…
Osteoarthritis, traditionally viewed as a whole joint disease, has benefited from limited integrated analysis of articular calcified cartilage (ACC) behavior in relation to adjacent tissues. Researchers have now utilized synchrotron X-ray computed tomography on intact, loaded joints to conduct an anatomical analysis, correlating this with digital volume correlation to explore whether microarchitectural ACC features function as predictive mechano-biomarkers for osteoarthritis.
The study focused on male osteoarthritis-prone STR/Ort mice and compared them to their healthy parental-control CBA mice. The STR/Ort mice exhibited thicker, yet more porous ACC containing larger lacunae, but with a less spherical shape than those in the CBA mice. This difference in ACC microarchitecture was associated with an asymmetrical distribution of tensile and compressive strains generated under normal physiological loads in the ACC and subchondral bone of the tibial epiphyses in the STR/Ort mice.
The findings suggest that murine ACC microarchitecture may play a mechano-predictive role in age-related osteoarthritis.
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