In vitro cartilage explant injury models

Mechanical injury resulting from a single impact or repetitive overloads is the major factor for the onset of post-traumatic arthritis. Researchers have used a variety of explant injury models to study the role of biomechanical factors in cartilage injury in vitro. Although these models cannot emulate all of the events occurring in an injured joint, they allow the evaluation of acute cellular responses and specific degradation mechanisms in well-defined explant culture environment using reproducible loading regimens. This chapter reviews the studies that utilize various loading systems to investigate cartilage injury, and to compare the results in terms of cell death and matrix damage in cartilage. In doing so, the reader will obtain a better understanding of the major biomechanical factors in cartilage injury and how they contribute to post-traumatic arthritis.