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A musculoskeletal finite element model of rat knee joint for evaluating cartilage biomechanics during gait

Orozco, Gustavo A LU ; Karjalainen, Kalle ; Moo, Eng Kuan ; Stenroth, Lauri ; Tanska, Petri ; Rios, Jaqueline Lourdes ; Tuomainen, Teemu V ; Nissi, Mikko J ; Isaksson, Hanna LU orcid and Herzog, Walter , et al. (2022) In PLoS Computational Biology 18(6).
Abstract

Abnormal loading of the knee due to injuries or obesity is thought to contribute to the development of osteoarthritis (OA). Small animal models have been used for studying OA progression mechanisms. However, numerical models to study cartilage responses under dynamic loading in preclinical animal models have not been developed. Here we present a musculoskeletal finite element model of a rat knee joint to evaluate cartilage biomechanical responses during a gait cycle. The rat knee joint geometries were obtained from a 3-D MRI dataset and the boundary conditions regarding loading in the joint were extracted from a musculoskeletal model of the rat hindlimb. The fibril-reinforced poroelastic (FRPE) properties of the rat cartilage were... (More)

Abnormal loading of the knee due to injuries or obesity is thought to contribute to the development of osteoarthritis (OA). Small animal models have been used for studying OA progression mechanisms. However, numerical models to study cartilage responses under dynamic loading in preclinical animal models have not been developed. Here we present a musculoskeletal finite element model of a rat knee joint to evaluate cartilage biomechanical responses during a gait cycle. The rat knee joint geometries were obtained from a 3-D MRI dataset and the boundary conditions regarding loading in the joint were extracted from a musculoskeletal model of the rat hindlimb. The fibril-reinforced poroelastic (FRPE) properties of the rat cartilage were derived from data of mechanical indentation tests. Our numerical results showed the relevance of simulating anatomical and locomotion characteristics in the rat knee joint for estimating tissue responses such as contact pressures, stresses, strains, and fluid pressures. We found that the contact pressure and maximum principal strain were virtually constant in the medial compartment whereas they showed the highest values at the beginning of the gait cycle in the lateral compartment. Furthermore, we found that the maximum principal stress increased during the stance phase of gait, with the greatest values at midstance. We anticipate that our approach serves as a first step towards investigating the effects of gait abnormalities on the adaptation and degeneration of rat knee joint tissues and could be used to evaluate biomechanically-driven mechanisms of the progression of OA as a consequence of joint injury or obesity.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Cartilage, knee joint, Osteoarthritis
in
PLoS Computational Biology
volume
18
issue
6
article number
e1009398
pages
23 pages
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:35657996
  • scopus:85131701285
ISSN
1553-7358
DOI
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009398
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
95a9cad1-45a9-415f-a990-a1435504cf03
date added to LUP
2022-06-08 11:42:13
date last changed
2024-06-13 17:48:10
@article{95a9cad1-45a9-415f-a990-a1435504cf03,
  abstract     = {{<p>Abnormal loading of the knee due to injuries or obesity is thought to contribute to the development of osteoarthritis (OA). Small animal models have been used for studying OA progression mechanisms. However, numerical models to study cartilage responses under dynamic loading in preclinical animal models have not been developed. Here we present a musculoskeletal finite element model of a rat knee joint to evaluate cartilage biomechanical responses during a gait cycle. The rat knee joint geometries were obtained from a 3-D MRI dataset and the boundary conditions regarding loading in the joint were extracted from a musculoskeletal model of the rat hindlimb. The fibril-reinforced poroelastic (FRPE) properties of the rat cartilage were derived from data of mechanical indentation tests. Our numerical results showed the relevance of simulating anatomical and locomotion characteristics in the rat knee joint for estimating tissue responses such as contact pressures, stresses, strains, and fluid pressures. We found that the contact pressure and maximum principal strain were virtually constant in the medial compartment whereas they showed the highest values at the beginning of the gait cycle in the lateral compartment. Furthermore, we found that the maximum principal stress increased during the stance phase of gait, with the greatest values at midstance. We anticipate that our approach serves as a first step towards investigating the effects of gait abnormalities on the adaptation and degeneration of rat knee joint tissues and could be used to evaluate biomechanically-driven mechanisms of the progression of OA as a consequence of joint injury or obesity.</p>}},
  author       = {{Orozco, Gustavo A and Karjalainen, Kalle and Moo, Eng Kuan and Stenroth, Lauri and Tanska, Petri and Rios, Jaqueline Lourdes and Tuomainen, Teemu V and Nissi, Mikko J and Isaksson, Hanna and Herzog, Walter and Korhonen, Rami K}},
  issn         = {{1553-7358}},
  keywords     = {{Cartilage; knee joint; Osteoarthritis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{6}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS Computational Biology}},
  title        = {{A musculoskeletal finite element model of rat knee joint for evaluating cartilage biomechanics during gait}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009398}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009398}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}